Lake Lure wastewater plan begins
7NEWS previously reported that Mayor Carol Pritchett stated that the lake was 'extremely unlikely' to open for the summer of 2025 due to the aftermath of Helene. The mayor stated that the town is working with the US Army Corps of Engineers to remove the subsurface lake debris, silt and sedimentation.
The drawdown plan is for around a foot to a foot-and-a-half of water to be removed each day.
Lake Lure will be lowered to almost 30 feet below full pond, while the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will work on and inspect the dam and sewer system.
Town officials said public work crews are working to continue to clear the park and begin the beautification process.
At this time, there is no boating or swimming allowed in Lake Lure.
Several attractions and activities are available in the area while crews continue to work on the lake such as Dittmer-Watts Nature Trails, Lake Lure Green Space, Pool Creek Picnic Park, Youngs Mountain and Rumbling Bald Golf Courses.Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Yahoo
ICE Barbie Reveals Plan to Splurge FEMA Cash on Bonkers ‘Alligator Alcatraz' Detention Center
The Trump administration plans to use funds from an otherwise gutted disaster-relief agency to build a migrant detention center that'll be surrounded by alligators and pythons. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, nicknamed ICE Barbie after her penchant for cosplaying as an immigration agent, announced on X Monday night that her department has been working at 'turbo speed' to deliver on President Donald Trump's mass deportation drive. A brainchild of Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, the center will mostly comprise a number of large tents set up on a remote airfield in the Everglades, which Uthmeier has said will require minimal security given the site is surrounded by dangerous wildlife. The plan fits neatly with the tenor of Trump's immigration crackdown, which has already seen migrants detained at Guantanamo Bay, notorious for the torture of Islamic terror suspects, and the COCET facility, a Salvadoran megaprison likened by critics to a concentration camp. It also echoes pledges made during Trump's first term in office, when he spoke repeatedly and at length about wanting to build a razor-topped wall and 'moat' along the U.S. border with Mexico, filling the latter with snakes and alligators to ward asylum seekers off making the already perilous crossing. 'These new facilities will in large part be funded by [the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA)] Shelter and Services program, which the Biden administration used as a piggy bank to spend hundreds of millions of American taxpayer dollars to house illegal aliens,' Noem added in her Monday post. Popular among the MAGA base, that's a claim that dates back to the Hurricane Helene relief efforts last October. Trump said then, in statements amplified by Elon Musk and other supporters, that the Biden-Harris administration had no money left to support victims of the disaster because 'they spent it all on illegal migrants.' The then-presidential candidate's suggestion that money for disaster relief had been spent on housing undocumented migrants did not stand up to scrutiny. FEMA, a division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), had administered payments to New York City to provide lodging for immigrants, but from a separate fund appropriated by Congress specifically for that purpose. In an ironic twist, Trump had during his first presidency already done exactly what he accused Biden of doing. In 2019, he took $271 million from DHS programs, including $155 million from the FEMA disaster fund, to meet the costs of additional detention facilities for asylum seekers attempting to cross the southern border. Since assuming office for the second time in January, the president has nevertheless now embarked on a cost-cutting crusade to significantly scale back, if not outright eliminate, FEMA. Battered as the United States is each year by hurricanes and other extreme weather events, the rationale behind gutting the United States' chief disaster relief agency has not been entirely clear, beyond Trump's desire 'to give out less money' as part of his administration's wider crackdown on 'wasteful' federal spending.
Associated Press
2 days ago
- Associated Press
Regulators approve plan for Georgia Power to freeze base rates through 2028
ATLANTA (AP) — Utility regulators on Tuesday approved a plan for Georgia Power Co. to freeze base power rates through the end of 2028, although opponents argue that customers could face risks later if costs to serve new computer data centers pile up. The five Republicans on the Georgia Public Service Commission voted unanimously for the plan after regulatory staff and the company agreed to it earlier. 'Freezing these rates shows that we're listening to ratepayers and we're doing all we can to protect them and continue to grow this economy in this state,' Commissioner Tim Echols said after the vote. Rates could still go up next year when commissioners consider how customers will pay for $862 million in storm damage, mainly due to 2024's Hurricane Helene. In testimony, Georgia Power Chief Financial Officer Aaron Abramovitz said the company hopes any rate increase to repay the damage could be offset with a decrease in the charge customers have been paying since 2023 to make up for higher costs of buying natural gas and coal. Customers have seen bills rise six times in recent years because of higher natural gas costs and construction projects, including two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle near Augusta. A typical Georgia Power residential customer now pays more than $175 a month, including taxes. The agreement allows Echols and Commissioner Fitz Johnson to seek reelection this year without a rate increase threatening their campaigns. Echols will face Democrat Alicia Johnson in November. Democrats Peter Hubbard and Keisha Sean Waites are vying in a July 15 runoff to face Fitz Johnson in the general election. Georgia Power CEO Kim Greene called the rate freeze a 'great result for customers, balancing the mutual benefits of extraordinary economic growth among all stakeholders and helping to ensure that we remain equipped to continue supporting growth in this state.' Opponents said the deal didn't do enough to contain the high profits of Georgia Power, a unit of Atlanta-based Southern Co, and doesn't provide enough scrutiny of the company's operations. Commissioner Lauren McDonald on Tuesday unsuccessfully attempted to limit how much the company can earn on the money it has invested — called return on equity — to 11.5% instead of 11.9%. Return on equity is the key driver of the company's profits. Georgia Power is the state's only privately owned electrical utility, serving 2.3 million customers statewide. Last year, Georgia Power collected $11.3 billion in revenue and contributed $2.5 billion in profit to Southern Co. The company predicts rapidly increasing demand from computer data centers. Georgia Power has said regular customers won't pay for power plants and transmission lines needed to electrify data centers, a pledge now backed by commission rules. But the company said in talks with commission staff that it could ask for a rate increase of up to $2.6 billion over three years. Instead, the company and staff hashed out a deal for the company to use tax credits and other financial maneuvers to boost its return on equity without raising rates. Opponents noted that the company had promised 'downward pressure' on rates last year when the commission approved an unusual request for Georgia Power to build more power plants outside the regular schedule. They asked why rates were staying flat instead of going down. John Wilson, an expert witness for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and other environmental groups, called it a 'rate increase hidden in the shadows.' Some advocates had called for Echols, McDonald and Commission Chair Jason Shaw to recuse themselves from the vote, saying they violated the commissioners' quasi-judicial role by supporting the deal before hearing evidence. Shaw and Echols spoke in favor of the agreement and McDonald appeared at a news conference but didn't speak. All three commissioners declined to recuse themselves, saying they had done nothing wrong. The deal comes even as commissioners are still considering Georgia Power's three-year plan to generate enough electricity to meet the state's needs. That plan foresees a very large increase in electrical demand, requiring new power plants or new purchases from existing plants. Typically, a rate plan is approved after the integrated resource plan, ensuring the utility can pay for improvements. Instead, Georgia Power will either absorb the costs or seek to pass them on to customers beginning in 2029.
3 days ago
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina won't run in 2026 after opposing Trump's bill
WASHINGTON -- WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said Sunday he will not seek reelection next year, an abrupt announcement that came one day after he staked out his opposition to President Donald Trump's tax breaks and spending cuts package because of its reductions to health care programs. His decision creates a political opportunity for Democrats seeking to bolster their numbers in the 2026 midterm elections, creating a wide-open Senate race in a state that has long been a contested battleground. It could also make Tillis a wild card in a party where few lawmakers are willing to risk Trump's wrath by opposing his agenda or actions. Trump had already been threatening him with a primary challenge, and posted Sunday that Tillis' announcement was 'Great News!' 'In Washington over the last few years, it's become increasingly evident that leaders who are willing to embrace bipartisanship, compromise, and demonstrate independent thinking are becoming an endangered species,' Tillis said in a lengthy statement. Tillis said he was proud of his career in public service but acknowledged the difficult political environment for those who buck their party and go it alone. 'I look forward to having the pure freedom to call the balls and strikes as I see fit and representing the great people of North Carolina to the best of my ability,' Tillis said in a statement. Republicans hold a 53-47 edge in the Senate. Trump, in social posts, had berated Tillis for being one of two Republican senators who voted on Saturday night against advancing the massive tax bill. The Republican president accused Tillis of seeking publicity with his 'no' vote and threatened to campaign against him, accusing the senator of doing nothing to help his constituents after last year's devastating floods in western North Carolina from Hurricane Helene. 'Tillis is a talker and complainer, NOT A DOER,' Trump wrote. The announcement from the two-term senator surprised senior Republicans with its timing, but not necessarily the substance. Tillis had planned to announce his reelection plans later this year, likely September at the latest, but had been heavily leaning in favor of retiring, according to a person close to the senator. In the hours before his announcement, Tillis was weighing two questions: whether Trump and the White House would give him freedom to campaign with some independence, and whether Tillis would have the full protection of Senate Republican leaders, said the person, who was granted anonymity to discuss internal dynamics. The GOP leadership's decision to forge ahead with cuts to Medicaid that Tillis repeatedly warned would devastate North Carolina, and the president's Truth Social post calling for a primary challenger to the senator made it clear to him that the answers to those two questions were no. Tillis then decided he would announce his retirement, with the thinking that it would remove any ambiguity whether he would flip his opposition to the GOP's sweeping tax bill. He informed Trump and Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Saturday night of his decision to retire. The North Carolina Republican Party chairman, Jason Simmons, said the party wishes Tillis well and 'will hold this seat for Republicans in 2026.' Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the chairman of the campaign arm for Senate Republicans, did not mention Tillis in a statement but said the party's winning streak in North Carolina will continue. Scott noted that Trump won the state three times. Democrats expressed confidence about their prospects. Former Rep. Wiley Nickel, who announced his candidacy in April, said he was ready for any Republican challenger. 'I've flipped a tough seat before and we're going to do it again,' Nickel said in a statement. Some said Tillis' decision is another sign of the dramatic transformation of the Republican Party under Trump, with few lawmakers critical of the president or his agenda remaining in office. It "proves there is no space within the Republican Party to dissent over taking health care away from 11.8 million people,' said Lauren French, spokesperson for the Senate Majority PAC, a political committee aligned with the chamber's Democratic members. Tillis rose to prominence in North Carolina when, as a second-term state House member, he quit his IBM consultant job and led the GOP's recruitment and fundraising efforts in the chamber for the 2010 elections. Republicans won majorities in the House and Senate for the first time in 140 years. Tillis was later elected as state House speaker and helped enact conservative policies on taxes, gun rights, regulations and abortion while serving in the role for four years. He also helped push a state constitutional referendum to ban gay marriage, which was approved by voters in 2012 but was ultimately struck down by the courts as unconstitutional. In 2014, Tillis helped flip control of the U.S. Senate to the GOP after narrowly defeating Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan. During his more than a decade in office, he championed issues such as mental health and substance abuse recovery, Medicaid expansion and support for veterans. As a more moderate Republican, Tillis became known for his willingness to work across the aisle on some issues. That got him into trouble with his party at times, most notably in 2023 when North Carolina Republicans voted to censure him over several matters, including his challenges to certain immigration policies and his gun policy record.
