April 25. The anti-toll group Cornelius resident Kurt Naas founded, Widen I-77, is looking for more financial support to appeal a court decision this past winter that went in favor of the NCDOT/Cintra toll deal. Meanwhile, the citizen group group is planning another demonstration on the Exit 28 bridge Friday at 5:30 pm.

Legal counsel advised WidenI77, which has considerable support from the business community, to appeal for three reasons:

• A trial court judge is sometimes reluctant to make a decision that will likely be appealed and second-guessed by a higher court.
• A higher court is typically more willing to decide sweeping issues like improper taxing authority.
• An appeal would be heard de novo, meaning the prior decision would have no bearing on a higher court’s decision.

The organization had pledges totaling around $13,000 last week, but about $7,000 more is needed.

For more information or to make a pledge, email WidenI77@hotmail.com.

A year ago ordinary citizens met on the Exit 28 Bridge to protest the NCDOT contract with Cintra, a Spanish company. At the time not a single town or county board was on record as being against the toll project. Since then the towns of Mooresville, Davidson, Cornelius and Huntersville as well as the counties of Iredell and Mecklenburg have passed resolutions either asking for the toll lanes to be stopped or delayed.

WidenI77 is a 501 c 3 organization dedicated to widening I-77 with general purpose lanes and to educating the public about the problems and inequity of the HOT lane approach.

The group believes toll lanes are an expensive, non-solution that will negatively impact our local economy, increase congestion on the general purpose lanes, and unfairly burden drivers. To learn more, visit www.wideni77.org