I think there will be changes of some degree, adjacent to the road. I
think Madison County—the business people, the chamber of commerce
people—are hoping that it will bring some additional industry to the
county. As you know, the county right now has a population of less that
20,000, and if you go back and look at the census in 1940, it was
25,000. So the young kids are leaving Madison County. That in itself is
not good to preserve the old way of life if the generations are not
succeeding themselves, and the kids
Page 45 are getting up
high school, college age, and are leaving the county. So there's a lot
of hope that there will be some industry that will spring up because of
the increased access into the county. The county people have a
tremendous work ethic. I think they would be a tremendous work force for
any smaller industry—maybe fifty to 200 employee industry. Obviously,
you're not going to have DuPont come in and build a factory for 10,000
people; there's just not a big enough place for that. But I think the
smaller and the medium-sized industries—there will be some opportunity
there. And that's going to change. I think you'll see at each
interchange—and there's not that many. We're only building one new
interchange—at Bear Branch Road—until you get to Mars Hill. But around
those areas, you will see growth—rapid growth, I think—especially at
Bear Branch Road, it being adjacent to Laurel. I just can't foresee that
staying the way it is after that road opens. There will be some changing
adjacent to the road, but overall, I think the biggest potential for
Madison County in the area of change will be more housing. People are
not as reluctant to build on hillsides like they were before. As you
said, the old people built down in the valleys, along the creeks and so
forth. And now, it's nothing for a development to spring up. I hate to
see that in a way. But in a way, if Western North Carolina around
Asheville continues to grow, where is the movement going to be? Buncombe
County is pretty well filled up now. I think you're going to see growth
between Burnsville and Asheville, out in this area. And I have mixed
feelings. I hope we don't do like they did at Linville and build
seven-story ski slopes. I mean, seven-story motels [and] ski slopes on
top of the mountains, and change the ridge lines. You go over into
Asheville now; you look at Sunset Mountain there, and Beaucatcher, and
there're just houses everywhere. You can overdo anything, and from my
standpoint it doesn't bother
Page 46 me to see a few
houses and development on a mountain if you preserve the integrity of
the mountain. The beauty of the mountain. That's going to be up to our
county officials to address. I'm sure it'll be a hot topic into
ordinances and laws and so forth. One thing that I will say that I'm
very pleased—the League of Women Voters and county commissioners and
Town of Mars Hill were instrumental in preventing signing all over along
the interstate. They passed a sign ordinance. And there's even a move
now to try to expand that and get this section designated a scenic
highway. From a personal standpoint—not speaking as a DOT employee, but
for myself personally—I hope they can do that, because this is a
beautiful highway, and it links to another beautiful highway on the
Tennessee side. In my mind—I'm prejudiced, I know, because I'm involved
in the building of it—but I think it'll be as beautiful when it's
completed, as the parkway or anything in Western North Carolina for the
tourists that want to come here in the leaf season and just drive
through and look at the beauty of the countryside.