RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - The federal government has resumed paying a settlement to a North Carolina county over a never-completed road designed to replace one flooded decades ago for a dam near the Tennessee border.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, Sen. Thom Tillis and others met Thursday in Washington to announce Swain County is getting $4 million earmarked in a 2012 law but never released due to legal concerns.
The government promised in the 1940s to build the 30-mile North Shore Road after flooding communities to build Fontana Dam. The road wasn’t finished due to costs and environmental issues.
Swain County reached a $52 million settlement with the department in 2010 but had received only one-quarter of the funds.
Tillis and Sen. Richard Burr praised the release and said they’d keep working for remaining funds.
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