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The ostriches won the most recent round of the road issue.
Hundreds of people packed the Courthouse Monday evening. Most wished to deliver the message to the members of the Board of Supervisors that they should “Just Say, No” to the Kellerco proposals for county roads.
“Just Say, No” wasn’t a very helpful approach to the issues of drug use and teen-aged pregnancy, and it is not likely to be particularly helpful in dealing with current and future traffic problems in the!county.
Burying our heads in the sand and hoping the 18-wheelers will go away is not much of a strategy.
No one wants to see U.S. 211 widened to six lanes, but if the county wants to keep that from happening, it must insist that VDOT not allow more and more cuts to be made onto the road for businesses. The two additional cuts for the 211 Quicke Mart and the pattern of lane crossings that have resulted illustrate the sort of problem that leads to congestion and the demand for more lanes. It would have been far better if the entrance to the new business had been off an access road across from the crossover point.
There is currently no need for four lanes for any section of U.S. 522 in Rappahannock County, but if continued development on our borders increases traffic, and decisions by VDOT in surrounding areas cause more and more trucks to use the road, the day may come.
Most of the proposals in the Kellerco plan are not on any VDOT plan, but funds for planning a Sperryville by-pass are included on the primary road six-year plan. So far two horrendous routes for such a by-pass have been proposed. One would leave about a dozen residences outside the town and cut the through road for them. The second would line the by-pass up with Route 231, a state scenic highway, thus encouraging traffic to use Route 231, rather than U.S. 522.
Pressure on the supervisors to “Just Say, No” prevents any intelligent discussion of more palatable alternatives.
While many oppose any bypasses of our villages, others believe intelligently done bypasses could improve village life. However, it is unlikely anyone wants a Flint Hill by-pass to divert traffic from U.S. 522 onto Route 729 going past Ben Venue. A “Just Say, No” approach prevents that distinction from being made. 'The mail brings an intriguing suggestion from Pam Lynn that the county seek to have both U.S. 522 and Route 231 barred to through truck traffic. Since U.S. 522 is a U.S. highway and part of the state’s arterial road network, it is unlikely any such thing could ever happen. However truck traffic could indeed be discouraged by frequently employing portable scales.
;Route 231 is another case entirely. Since it is a designated scenic highway, it seems that such a proposal is a possibility. However, that leaves the question of who is going to follow trucks from Sperryville to Madison to check and see whether they indeed go through.
Some of these issues will be raised again at a forum sponsored by RLEP on Thursday, May 11 at The Theatre. With luck county residents can move from protesting about what they don’t want to discussing what they do want with the realization that no matter how much they may want everything to just stay the same, that is the only thing that cannot happen.
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