Newspaper Page Text
Page 8, October 21,2024, The Islander
Mallery St.
Continued from Page 6
The owner of the King City Kitchen
restaurant, which is located in be
tween 115 and 121 Mallery St. had
the same concerns, noting that recent
ly a delivery truck had to unload in
front of his business because the alley
was blocked with parked cars and he
couldn’t get in.
The people speaking in favor also
had one focus - they believed the resi
dential units would be short term
rentals used by people who would
shop in their businesses. They were
afraid they would lose money.
Note: No one denied that the units
would be short term rentals.
Day spoke in favor disputing much
of what the opposition said.
Noting the number of two story
buildings in the pier village, Fendig
made a motion to defer the item say
ing, “We are at a juncture here where
this could change the whole context
of the pier village. There’s already no
more available parking at the pier. I’m
not comfortable with this tonight. It
will change the entire pier area.”
“As leaders,” Fendig continued, “if
we vote tonight we could set a prec
edent that could change the character
of the village and it has not been de
bated. We need to look at the future
of the village and be careful about it.”
Fendig’s motion to defer both CUPs
to the November 7 meeting passed
unanimously.
Hwy. 82
Continued from Page 1
location.
The consensus of the BOC was to
install a traffic light, but Hartman
said the intersection did not meet
the DOT’s seven criteria for a traffic
light.
Among other considerations some
of that criteria includes:
• a certain amount of stopped time
delay for traffic on a minor street
approach;
• a certain volume of traffic on a
minor street approach and
• intersections with recurring traf
fic congestion, high traffic volumes,
and high accident rates.
Commissioner Bo Clark (At Large
#1) was first to speak saying the R-
cut “was ridiculous.” The R-cut would
eliminate left hand turns from both
side roads.
Clark noted that people coming
from Ratcliff Rd. heading to Bruns
wick would have to travel a long dis
tance west before making a u-turn to
head back east.
He said if people coming from My
ers Hill who wanted to simply cross
over to the Dollar General store at
Ratcliff Rd. on the other side of Hwy.
82, they would have to travel a long
way east all the way to Emanuel
Church Rd. before they could make
a u-turn and head back. He added
that they would have to go through
the same process going home - they
would have to turn right out of Dollar
General and drive a long way west
before turning around to get back to
Myers Hill.
“This is nuts,” he said.
The intersection is in Commis
sioner Sammy Tostensen’s (Dist. 1)
district. He asked if the BOC could
request the DOT to reevaluate their
study.
Hartman said the state agency had
looked at all the options, including
the stop light. “They looked at a lot
of avenues,” he said, “Safety is their
first issue and the Dollar General’s
location won’t change the study.”
Note: Hartman’s reference to the
Dollar General and the DOT study
was because the store has only been
open about two months and was not
open when the DOT did their study.
According to the Dollar General
manager, the store gets about 350 to
400 patrons a day.
BOC chairman Wayne Neal (Dist.
3) asked, “If we ask for a new study,
will it take us out of the DOT’s project
queue for the year?”
Commissioner Walter Rafolski
(At Large #2) said, “We should push
harder for a traffic light. I was just
out on Hwy. 441 and there are traffic
lights in the middle of nowhere, areas
with no houses or buildings around.”
Tostensen agreed saying, “We
should have some say-so in this.
That’s why we asked Aaron (Mum-
ford) for a resolution requesting the
DOT to do something about the in
tersection. And if we don’t like the
DOT’s recommendation, we should
have alternatives.”
Mumford said if they wanted, the
BOC could ask the DOT to reevaluate
their study.
Tostensen made a motion to modi
fy their original DOT resolution ask
ing for the Hwy. 82 improvement
and then vote to adopt it at the next
meeting.
Resden Talbert, the county Direc
tor of Capital Development and Pro
curement, spoke up saying the DOT
said the R-cut is the quickest way to
fix the intersection. “They asked us if
we support it,” he said, “They didn’t
say this is the only fix. They said this
is a quick way to fix it that they have
the money for now.”
Neal commented that he agreed
the distances for the u-turns was too
long.
Hartman said if the county pur
sued a different option it could take
five or six years before the state could
get it done. “The DOT said this is the
best way to get it done soon,” he said.
Tostensen said, “We want a per
manent solution.”
This being the last item on the
agenda, the BOC agreed to go into
closed session, have the attorney re
write the proclamation and vote on
it when they came out of the closed
session.
After the meeting they voted to
drop the resolution and send a letter
to the DOT asking for a ‘traditional’
R-cut that would have a shorter turn
around distance than the ‘modified’
R-cut the DOT proposed.
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