Anderson City Council votes to join Mounds Lake Commission

00;00;00;03 - 00;00;27;25 Stephanie Wiechmann After almost five hours of public testimony and long after this reporter's recorder had run out of power, Anderson City Council President Donna Davis asked if anyone else wanted to give their opinion on Mounds Lake Reservoir, a proposed 2100 acre lake that would snake its way through Madison and Delaware counties. Earlier in the night, Corporation for Economic Development Director Rob Sparks urged council members to think of forming the Mounds Lake Commission as the next step in a process of small steps to study whether the reservoir will actually work. 00;00;27;27 - 00;00;51;02 Rob Sparks The project has a lot they can offer, but there is a lot of consequence as well as far and as well as a lot more information is required. This process will play out in incremental steps over a period of months and years, not days and weeks. Today is not to talk about building it. It is about the philosophy of directing the project to see if we can clear the hurdles necessary to advance this project. 00;00;51;07 - 00;01;19;01 Stephanie Wiechmann And that's exactly what Anderson council members did. Voting 7 to 2 in favor of joining the Commission. When fully formed, it will start phase three of the proposed reservoir, including, most importantly, a federal environmental impact study. Leading the opposition to the project is the heart of the River coalition and its spokeswoman, Sheryl Myers. She and other area residents tried to convince council members that the new study, estimated to cost $ 28 million, was too expensive for a project that's already been judged by some as invasive and destructive. 00;01;19;03 - 00;01;42;00 Sheryl Myers I'm here to tell you that they can take decades, not a few years in total. They can be thousands of pages, not a few. And with cost overruns and the amount of research that has to go into studying every alternative, which in their own right can require environmental impact statements. This could be a very long ordeal. 00;01;42;02 - 00;01;55;09 Stephanie Wiechmann Myers wasn't the only one passionate about her view on Mounds Lake. The council saw a standing room only crowd in council chambers and an overflow crowd that filled three quarters of the city auditorium, watching the meeting on live video and clapping when someone made a point they agreed with. 00;01;55;16 - 00;01;59;14 Ollie Dixon We are elected officials by the people. It is our response. 00;01;59;16 - 00;02;06;24 Stephanie Wiechmann Councilman Ollie Dixon spoke in opposition of the commission throughout the meeting, saying the council shouldn't relinquish their power to another body. 00;02;06;27 - 00;02;14;16 Ollie Dixon Authority, a vote to anyone. Those people out there elected us to make this decision. We don't need a commission. 00;02;14;19 - 00;02;22;00 Stephanie Wiechmann When it came time to vote, Councilman David Eicks said he stood with those residents who wanted more information, like Lisa Singleton Roberts of Anderson. 00;02;22;03 - 00;02;38;11 Ollie Dixon I personally want to know more. I want to know all the details, all the details that at that both sides are putting out in front of us. I didn't think tonight was supposed to be about those details. It was about a supposed to be about forming a commission so that we can get into those details. 00;02;38;13 - 00;02;55;02 Stephanie Wiechmann According to the commission agreement, the cities of Chesterfield, Daleville, and Yorktown must vote yes to join the commission to start the phase three study. When asked by council members directly, project head Sparks said he couldn't imagine the commission going forward if any of the towns voted no. In Anderson, Stephanie Wiechmann, IPR news.