Protecting our natural beauty
By Frank Bradley Staff writer
Protecting the county's natural beauty is top priority of Clay County residents as expressed in a recent county wide poll. More than 1300 residents responding to survey distributed to all the county's utility customers in January, said protecting the county's natural beauty was their top priority.

Almost nine out of ten said they were very concerned about keeping our county's streams clean and protecting our mountain ridge tops from development.

More than eight out of ten said they were very concerned about protecting our county's scenic views,our woodlands and the practice of clear cutting forests in the building of new homes.

Of lesser concerns were such issues as lakeside development, residential trash removal, litter control on the highways and the appearance of existing business buildings.

The purpose of the survey was to find out what county residents felt were the most impor- tant areas of concern regarding the county's appearance,and whether residents felt these concerns were being adequately addressed by local governmental officials and business and community leaders.

In addition to ranking the issues listed in the survey, participants also had an opportunity to provide written comments regarding their concerns and suggestions they wanted to register.

According to poll analysts, many of the written comments followed the same themes shown in the scored survey with natural beauty and changes in residential building practices among the most often mentioned.

Response rate for the poll was extremely high,according to the survey sponsor, Partners for an Attractive Clay County, with more than 16 percent of the 8,000 polled answering the survey.

Detailed results of the survey are available on-line (www.hrwc.com) and www.brmemc.com) and copies of all 1,303 surveys--edited for confidentiality--are available for public review at the Moss Public Library in Hayesville.

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