Public meeting next Tuesday, Sept. 8 at 6:30 pm
During a meeting with residents of the Gatewood subdivision Tuesday, Williamston Mayor Mack Durham proposed two options to deal with a problem that is being delayed by FEMA. According to Durham, the project is being delayed because of a missing FEMA floodplain map required to proceed with the necessary permits to reconstruct the entrance to the subdivision.
The Mill Street entrance has crumbling roadway due to a washout last year of dirt and rock around two pipes that allow Big Creek to flow under the road. Traffic is currently limited to one lane with cones placed around the area of the washout.
Residents expressed concern about the safety of the roadway, especially with school buses using it along with heavier trucks going to the Waste Water Treatment Plant. Weekly engineering inspections and ongoing maintenance is being done on the site while the project is being delayed, he said.
At the request of residents and concern that the project was taking so long, the town recently constructed a temporary entrance to the subdivision from Williams Street. the entrance is currently gated and is not being used yet.
However Durham proposed to residents the option of paving the temporary entrance and making it the main entrance to the subdivision.
Durham said the option would allow additional funding to possible pave streets in the subdivision since the paving option would be considerably less than the $480,000 estimated cost to reconstruct the entrance. However, Durham also said that trucks would continue to use that entrance to access the WWTP.
“The project could be completed by this time if proper documents were available from FEMA. Exhaustive efforts have failed to obtain the needed information from FEMA and we are now being told that it is our responsibility to produce information that would normally come from this Federal Government Office.”
Durham said with the required permitting process, and FEMA missing map, the project may take an additional twelve to eighteen months and could take as long as two years. Durham said the town may have to pay for the required 100 year floodplain maps at a cost of $35,000.
“They had them at some point because there is data on the FEMA website that shows a map was produced,”Durham said.
Councilman Rockey Burgess said the situation was a prime example of the overreach of the Federal government into the lives of people on the local level.
Several residents expressed concerns and asked questions about the project and several suggestions were made.
From the public comments there was no consensus to pave the temporary roadway and use it as the main and only entrance.
Residents attending wanted to pave the temporary roadway as a residential entrance with the addition of street lighting and possibly sidewalks for safety but also wanted to repair the existing entrance as a “truck traffic only” entrance to segregate truck traffic from the neighborhood for safety.
Responding to suggestions made during the public meeting, Durham said the town will look into providing guard rails, temporary paving, and improved lighting to increase the safety of traveling over the constricted entrance.
A follow up meeting with residents of the Gatewood community is planned for Tuesday September 8th at 6:30 pm. All Gatewood community residents are urged to attend to ask questions about the project and make their desires known.
Durham said Anderson County Transportation officials and engineers along with others involved in the project are being invited to the special meeting.
