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Resolution
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dual-laning, they tried — unsuccessfully — to persuade the Planning Commission to delete the highway’s construction from the goals set out in the county’s comprehensive plan. They asked the supervisors last month to hold another public hearing on the highway project, but were turned down. And this month, they again requested the board to drop support for the parallel lanes before the April 11 primary road hearing in Culpeper.
Challenging the need for the dual-laning from a safety standpoint, Stella Cadwalader pointed out that despite the 31 percent increase in traffic since 1974 cited by the supervisors, the number of accidents on the 4.2-mile stretch has declined while the number of fatalities has stayed constant. Statistically, Rt. 211 between Washington and Sperryville is safer than the rest of Virginia’s primary system, she said.
She recalled that in 1974, 45 people in a Sperryville citizens’ group were able to stop the Highway Department’s plans to build a by-pass around the village. “We have more than 500 people in the Friends of Old Rt. 211. Surely we can be as effective.”
Ulrich Maeyer called the road project “the greatest waste of taxpayers’ money I can imagine . . . $20 million to build a road we do not need.” A landowner in the highway corridor who travels the road regularly, Mr. Maeyer agreed that improvements are needed but maintained that “trouble spots” can be easily corrected by widening shoulders, leveling dips and hills, and adding deacceleration lanes for vehicles turning onto side roads. “It can be made safe for much less money,” he said.
Rappahannock has a “silent majority” which is rarely reached and rarely heard, so the 500 voters w ho signed the petitions against the project represent “a strong mandate,” he continued. Reminding the supervisors that they are elected to represent the people, he maintained that a refusal to oppose the highway can only be justified on the basis of not knowing what the people of Rappahannock want. “So hold a public hearing or a referendum,” Mr. Maeyer proposed. “I know the Board of Supervisors has pushed for this for 15 or 20 years . . . But an honest man can change his mind when the platform on which he based his decision changes. ”
Ernest Heirs suggested lowering hills, cutting down embankments, and widening shoulders as an alter
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