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The Presentation: · NETMOB's presentation before the Texas Transportation Commission is a continuation of seven previous appearances by the State Highway 24 Association. These previous appearances, the first of which was on October 26, 1983, were the catalysts for obtaining funding for a majority of the previous widening projects along the State Highway 24 corridor, in Delta, Hunt, and Lamar Counties. The direct result of the Association's last appearance before the Texas Transportation Commission (on February 26, 1998) is the $18.6 million construction project that is currently taking place on State Highway 24 in Hunt County, between Commerce and the roadside park in Delta County. · NETMOB's presentation will focus on the three benefits that the completion of State Highway 24 to a 4-lane facility will offer to all of Texas: Congestion relief to the Metroplex: If north-to-south through traffic is given a four-lane bypass route that does not go through the Metroplex, it will use it, thereby reducing traffic volumes along the already overtaxed North Central Expressway. Air Quality relief for the Metroplex: A couple of years ago, the TNRCC tried to solve the air quality problems of the Metroplex by enlarging the sample area (as opposed to addressing the issue directly and working to reduce emissions). This proposed enlargement of the sample area would have placed the four NETMOB counties into the Metroplex's sample area. Had this happened, these four counties would currently be classified as being out-of-compliance with federal air quality standards, or non-attainment areas. NETMOB's four counties fought diligently to stay out of the Metroplex's sample area because they knew that this dubious distinction would be detrimental to their local economies. NETMOB is not seeking to bring air pollution problems to their communities. They believe that by providing a short-term exposure bypass of the Metroplex (of which State Highway 24 would be a part), vehicle air emission exposure times will be reduced within the Metroplex, thereby reducing the potential health and economic risks posed to NETMOB counties by their large, out-of-compliance neighbor. Economic Development: Based upon the 2000 census, 114 Texas cities have populations greater than 20,000. [Highways which serve as a principal connector for Texas cities with populations greater than 20,000 is a Texas Trunk System selection criteria.] Only three of these 114 cities do not have direct access, or four-lane highway access, to the Interstate Highway System within Texas. One of these three '~vithout access cities" is the city of Paris (population 25,898). Industries within Delta and Lamar Counties pay a transportation premium because they do not have four-lane access to the Interstate Highway System. The economic development foundations within these counties have a difficult time attracting new industries to their communities because they do not have four-lane access to the Interstate Highway System.