Continued from Page 1 acknowledged, pointing to “trouble spots”

Continued from Page 1

acknowledged, pointing to “trouble spots” in front of the Pine Knot, the Fanner’s Co-op, and the highway’s intersection with Route 622 at Gid Brown Hollow. “It needs improvement and it needs it fast," he said, but maintained that for safety, it needed simply widened shoulders and leveled hills.

Mr. Maeyer reported that as of last week, 460 Rappahannock residents had signed petitions calling for the project to be dropped and predicted that more names would be added before the Highway Department’s April II primary road hearing. “We have supervisors elected by 220 votes ... If 500 people are against this highway. I think you have to stop it.” If the four-lane is built, then a by-pass will necessarily follow. Mr. Maeyer warned. “If we get the four-lane and we get the bypass, then that will hurt the Sperry - ville businesses that are now thriving . . . You say by-pass, and they get a heart attack on the spot!"

Joyce Abell said she agreed with Commissioner Werner Krebser, who has repeatedly maintained that big highways pave the way for development. Noting the increased development in neighboring Fauquer and Warren counties, she cautioned that Rappahannock may become the bedroom community for Northern Virginia. “I’m opposed to anything that would further that;"

Highway statistics show that Route 211 is not a dangerous road overall, Mrs. Abell said, pointing that the accident rate is lower for the two-lane highway than the average for the state’s primary roads. And the dangerous spots could be eliminated by flattening hills to increase the sight distance, she said. Motorists on a new four-lane stretch will drive the same 65 miles per hour as they do between Warrenton and Washington. Mrs. Abell said, questioning whether a 25 mile an hour school zone at RCHS would be observed. She also maintained that dumping four lanes into Sperryville would make conditions there more hazardous.

Route 211 “is not a heavily enough traveled road" to require four lanes, said Diana Bird. She asked for the criteria used by the Highway Department to determine whether a road is to be four-laned: ‘How much traffic? How many accidents?" Would Route 211 be a fourlane project today if it wasn’t already on the books and how likely is it that Route 522 from Front Royal to Massies Corner and from Sperryville to Culpeper would be widened, Mrs. Bird asked.

Maintaining that the construction of 1-66 has changed conditions by diverting traffic from Route 211. she questioned the value road widening has if the highway can be made safer in other ways. “To make planning rational,” she added, the project should include a by-pass around Sperryville.

Rather than improving safety conditions, the four-laning will make the Flatwoods area more hazardous, said Robin Purnell. High school students trying to get onto the highway will have to enter traffic moving at much higher speeds, she said. Noting that her children attend the Child Care and Learning Center located at the beginning of the stretch proposed to be widened, Mrs. Purnell said: “Personally, I do not w'ant my children to be in a school where cars are speeding by at 65, 75 miles per hour." She added that CCLC’s director has tried unsuccessfully for