MINUTES
STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
COUNTY OF HENDERSON MAY
14, 2002
The Henderson County Board of Commissioners held a special-called
meeting on Tuesday, May 14, 2002 at 2:00 pm in the Commissioners= Meeting Room of the Henderson County Office
Building at 100 North King Street, Hendersonville, NC. The purpose of the meeting was
two-fold: to appoint a temporary
chairman and temporary vice-chair for a specified period of time; and, to
conduct a North Carolina Department of Transportation Public Hearing on
Secondary Roads.
Present were Chairman William Moyer,
Vice-Chair Marilyn Gordon, Commissioner Grady Hawkins, Commissioner Charlie
Messer, Commissioner Don Ward, County Attorney Angela S. Beeker and Clerk to
the Board, Elizabeth W. Corn.
Absent was County Manager David E. Nicholson.
WELCOME/CALL
TO ORDER
Chairman Moyer
called the meeting to order.
APPOINTMENT
OF TEMPORARY CHAIRMAN AND VICE-CHAIR
Chairman Moyer
stated the need to make appointment of a temporary chairman for the period of
May 15th through May 21st to be inclusive of the
Vice-Chair in the absence of him and Commissioner Gordon during their business
trip to Mexico with other local officials. Chairman Moyer made a motion to
appoint Commissioner Ward as temporary Chairman for that period.
Commissioner Hawkins did not object to the nomination
but he wanted the Board to consider amending the Rules of Procedure so that the
chain of succession is already established in it. He recommended the next senior person on the Board assume that
duty without having to go through the procedure each time that it occurs. The
Board would consider that recommendation at another time.
All voted in favor of Chairman Moyer=s motion and the motion carried.
NORTH
CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION PUBLIC HEARING ON SECONDARY ROAD PAVING
SCHEDULE
Chairman Moyer
introduced Mr. Conrad Burrell who is the North Carolina Department of
Transportation Board member for the 14th Division. Mr. Burrell thanked the Commissioners for allowing NCDOT to hold
this public hearing. He stated the
purpose of this meeting was to share with the Commissioners and the community
the proposed gravel road paving program for the next fiscal year and to receive
comments on the proposed schedule. Mr.
Burrell introduced the Department of Transportation representatives present at
the public hearing: Ron Watson,
Division Engineer; Jay Swain, Division Maintenance Engineer; Ed Green, District
Engineer; Mark Gibbs, County Maintenance Engineer; Jabot Pressley, Road
Maintenance Supervisor; David Hensley, Road Maintenance Supervisor and several
right-of-way employees.
Mr. Burrell explained that Henderson County=s share of the secondary road construction money is
three million one hundred twelve thousand three hundred sixty-eight dollars and
forty-eight cents. This figure
represents the amount which is available for improving secondary roads during
the next year. The proposed plan is based
upon this figure and the paving priority system. A copy of the proposed plan had been posted at the County
Courthouse for the past two weeks.
After this public hearing is completed, the Board of Commissioners would
be asked to pass a resolution approving the proposed plan.
Ron Watson reminded the Commissioners and audience that
this meeting was for paving or improvements for secondary roads. NCDOT has been in the secondary road
construction program for several years attempting to pave all the unpaved roads
in the County. NCDOT was nearing the
end of the list in a lot of counties.
However, there are lots of roads where citizens do not want those roads
paved. Mr. Watson further explained that if a majority of the residents on that
road do not want it to be paved and are not willing to give right-of-way, NCDOT
doesn=t force the issue.
However, in the past there have been instances where a very few people
or maybe even one property owner keeps an entire community from having a paved
road. Legislature passed a law this
past session which makes it mandatory for NCDOT to allow condemnation of
parcels on a road if seventy-five percent of the property owners on that road
agree to donate the right-of-way and it constitutes seventy-five percent of the
frontage on the road. The other
condition is that condemnation has to be sponsored by someone willing to put up
a bond to begin that condemnation procedure.
Division 14 has allowed that in the past in a lot of instances but now
it is the law for those provisions.
However, Mr. Watson had heard that the Transportation Subcommittee in
Raleigh is considering lowering the requirements to fifty percent so that if a
bare majority of people on the road wants it paved they can condemn the
others. The NCDOT right-of-way
unavailable list where the people do not want their roads paved in Division 14
is long due to the fact that Division 14, which covers ten counties, has forty
percent of all the roads in North Carolina.
Jay Swain stated this secondary road paving program
had been very popular with the citizens.
NCDOT is proud of the program because it has been successful over a long
period of time throughout multiple NCDOT administrations. NCDOT has been working on gravel roads and
trying to get them paved or at least offer paving to the property owners on the
roads for several years. It is a voluntary
program in that if the property owner is willing to donate the right-of-way,
NCDOT will pave the road. If the
majority of the property owners don=t want their road paved, then NCDOT will leave it
gravel. The Right-of-Way Unavailable
list was attached to the roster of the paving program. NCDOT offered paving for those roads but
right-of-way was unavailable. However,
NCDOT has not given up on the roads on the right-of-way unavailable list. If property owners change their minds and
right-of-way becomes available, those roads can be put back on the paving
program as NCDOT funds allow.
Mr. Swain further explained that once NCDOT gets to
the end of the paving list, NCDOT will then focus on paved road improvements
projects like Howard Gap Road where widening and safety improvements were
made. NCDOT wants to offer widening
where possible to make a significant difference in capacity as well as safety,
intersection improvements and other types of paved road improvements where they=re needed. Mr.
Swain encouraged the Commissioners and the citizens to contact NCDOT about
roads needing such improvements. NCDOT
anticipates that program too will be successful.
Ed Green explained NCDOT previously had a subdivision
residential list and a rural list for roads scheduled for paving, but the
entire subdivision residential list has been completed so now only rural roads
appear on the paving schedule. Only
sixteen rural roads with available right-of-way remain to be paved. The 2002-2003 paving priority schedule for
rural roads include: State Road #1836B,
Pot Shoals Road; SR 1110, Terry=s Creek Road; SR 2208, Creasman Hill Road; SR 1128 CCC Road; SR 1798
Garrett Road; SR 1956 Gallimore Road; SR 1590 Smith Road; SR 1602B Grant
Mountain Road; SR 1338 Watagnee Trail Road; SR 1130 Shoal Falls Road; SR 1106B
Upper Green River Road; SR 1704 Lloyd Williams Road; SR 1420 Westfield Road; SR
1344 River Loop Road; SR 1114D Pinnacle Mountain Road; and SR 1799B Deep Gap
Road for total of 25.66 miles proposed to be paved this year.
PUBLIC
COMMENTS
Nick Weedman,
130 Berry Creek Drive, Flat Rock, NC 28731-Mr. Weedman inquired about the status of Pinnacle
Mountain Road, SR 1114A, on this year=s list. Mr.
Weedman at a NCDOT public hearing two years ago requested that NCDOT propose a
plan to address the safety concern at the intersection of SR 1114A and US
25. He inquired what the plans are to
improve the intersection which is in a curve at the top of a hill and is a
dangerous situation. Mr. Green replied that one property owner had refused to
grant right-of-way and therefore progress had stalled. However, NCDOT was investigating the
possibility of using a road that goes into an existing subdivision to remedy
that safety concern. That intersection
would be just north of where it is now and connect that road into Pinnacle
Mountain Road. It would be a better
alignment. Mr. Swain explained that
NCDOT would continue right-of-way negotiations on the road and look at
addressing the safety concern at that intersection.
Randy Neall-3033 Timber Trail, Hendersonville NC 28792-Mr. Neall inquired about the status of Lloyd Williams
Road and Blythe Stepp Road. Mr. Green
replied that Blythe Stepp Road is on the Right-of-Way Unavailable list. Mr. Neall wanted to know if NCDOT would pave
that portion of Blythe Stepp Road where right-of-way is available. Mr. Green replied that NCDOT traditionally
had done those types when they came up in the paving priority even though they
are detached. Typically, NCDOT likes to
do projects from pavement to pavement on new roads. Mr. Neall further inquired if Blythe/Williams would be an
exception in this case. A right-of-way
agent replied there was a possibility that NCDOT might get the right-of-way and
that possibly could be done. Mr. Neall
inquired if NCDOT knew when that would be done. Mr. Green replied it would be done when NCDOT got the
right-of-way on Lloyd Williams Road. He
further explained this was just a proposal and then after these are approved,
NCDOT will stake them and the right-of-way agents will contact the property
owners to get the right-of-way. Mr.
Neall further commented that road would involve considerable excavation and
wanted to know if the property owners would be given the opportunity to see the
design for the road construction before NCDOT did the work. Mr. Swain replied that Mr. Neall and all
other interested parties could see the design plan when NCDOT had it completed
and urged Mr. Neall to keep in contact with Ed Green about its status. Mr. Green further explained that when NCDOT
is in the right-of-way process if there are questions from the property owners,
NCDOT will go out and usually slope stake their property or show them where the
right-of-way will be and what it will involve.
Chairman Moyer clarified that although the new
legislation specifies that NCDOT must allow condemnation to proceed if
seventy-five percent of the property owners want it, but the fee for the
condemnation would have to come from the property owners. No NCDOT funding would be granted to do
it. Mr. Watson replied that was
correct. The Division policy has been
in the past that if seventy-five percent of the parcels and eighty percent of
the road frontage agreed to donate the right-of-way, then NCDOT would allow
condemnation. The new legislation just
makes it mandatory to allow condemnation for all parcels with unavailable
right-of-way. Chairman Moyer explained
that the County=s
Transportation Advisory Committee that was established by the Board of
Commissioners had worked hard on trying to secure some of the rights-of-way on
the right-of-way unavailable list but unfortunately the Committee was
unsuccessful in getting any of them. People that are adamant about not giving
right-of-way continued to be so.
Mr. Swain stated that NCDOT would not have the paving
list next year unless some of the roads on the unavailable rights-of-way list
became eligible for paving. Once the
paving projects are completed, NCDOT would focus their efforts toward paved
roads improvements.
Chairman Moyer made a motion that the Board approve
the secondary road improvement paving schedule as presented for the paving of
roads in Henderson County in the amount of three million one hundred twelve
thousand three hundred sixty eight dollars and forty-eight cents and other spot
projects in the amount of seven hundred seventy-eight thousand ninety-two
dollars and twelve cents for a total of three million, eight hundred ninety
thousand four hundred sixty dollars and sixty cents.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously.
Chairman Moyer commended NCDOT representatives for
their work done this past year.
Considerable progress had been made.
The relationship between the Board and NCDOT had worked very well and
the Board knew that NCDOT would continue to improve the roads of Henderson
County.
Adjournment
Chairman Moyer made
a motion to adjourn at 2:25 pm. All
voted in favor and the motion carried.
Attest:
Elizabeth W. Corn,
Clerk to the Board William L. Moyer, Chairman