We need your help! Please take the time to place a call between now and Wednesday at 1pm.
PHONE CAMPAIGN GOVERNOR Easley
1-800-662-7952 valid in North Carolina only (919) 733-4240, or (919) 733-5811.
Goal: To ask that Governor Easley become our personal advocate to those in power in order to affect change. To give him examples of your fears and concerns about the bridge…how it affects you/your family personally. If you drive across the bridge with your windows open, tell him so! Likewise, if you keep an escape hammer in your console, look for oncoming headlights at night to make sure they don’t suddenly stop, follow a long distance behind heavy tractor trailers when crossing, tell him so! If you are scared about your family’s financial future if the bridge fails, share that also.
Please do not harass him since he can be a strong ally in what will become a critical fight in the next few months.
Speaking points as follows:
As a person who uses the Herbert C Bonner Bridge over Oregon Inlet on a daily/weekly/annual basis, I have lived with the fear and concern of “what if” for years. With a dismal stability rating of a 2 out of 100, it is a common topic of conversation among the 32,000 residents in Dare County and along the Outer Banks. The question is obvious…how can our government, the elected officials who have the responsibility to protect us, allow this situation to continue?
With the tragedy in Minneapolis, I no longer have to imagine. I live every day with the image of that school bus lying on the collapsed bridge. I live with the unbearable reality that if a similar situation happened to the Bonner Bridge, there would be no second chance for our children.
The collapsed bridge in Minnesota had a stability rating of 50% and like NCDOT, their state department of transportation assured the public that the bridge was safe. Will it take loss of life to move North Carolina to act? One human injury is too expensive of a price to pay to satisfy those who oppose the bridge. We (the people of Dare, NC, USA) can repair the environment (ex: Chesapeake Bay, Hudson River), we can not make the injured and dead whole again, ever!
Please understand our frustration Governor Easley. We have worked within the system for 17 years, yet we are no closer to a resolution. The government’s failure to act is putting our lives, the lives of our children, in danger.
Governor Easley, when you accepted the honor of being the governor of our great state, you accepted the responsibility to protect its citizens. We are desperately asking for your help now. We have been advocating for years, yet the bureaucratic delays continue in a callous disregard for public safety and human life.
Challenge the opponents who are delaying this project to drop the rhetoric and replace the bridge. Accordingly, Direct the state agencies to vote to move this project forward on Wednesday, August 15th when the project Merger Team meets in Raleigh to once again ask for concurrence on the draft environmental impact statement.
Don’t let your administration be defined by its failure to act on a tragedy waiting to happen. Do what is right for the people of Dare County and the state of North Carolina - take action today to ensure the immediate replacement of the Bonner Bridge. |
