The Patrick County Board of Supervisors has scheduled a public hearing for its Sept. 8 meeting to consider closing a section of Dogwood Road in front of Hardin Reynolds Memorial School (HRMS).
The motion to move forward with the hearing passed on a 4-1 vote, with Mayo River District Supervisor Clayton Kendrick opposing.
Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) Resident Engineer Lisa Price-Hughes said she would present alternative safety measures for the board to consider in place of discontinuing maintenance on approximately 300 feet of Dogwood Road.
“If closing the section’s your pleasure, feel free to let me know and we can start that process,” she said. “Otherwise, we will not pursue it.”
If the board opted to pursue the closure, “we’d provide the property owner notifications and do all the advertisement and handle everything from that point,” Price-Hughes said.
Schools Superintendent Jason Wood said the school division’s facilities committee met with VDOT on May 15 to discuss safety concerns involving the intersection between the school’s main building and its gym.
“There are issues where cars may go 60 miles an hour during the school day through that intersection,” Wood said. “We’ve had multiple times where teachers had to stop students, cars had to slam on their brakes, and it is a dangerous intersection for students to cross as they’re approaching that stop sign.”
Wood said the school system has spent the past decade exploring ways to improve student safety at the site.
“VDOT acknowledged the concern. I know it came up before the board and there was a price tag involved, so VDOT proposed the solution of abandoning the road,” he said.
Although that proposal came at no cost to the county or the school division, Wood said school officials remain open to alternative solutions.
“We’re aware that it’s easy to fall in line with the mindset that nothing has happened, so why are we proposing the change?” he said. “But with regard to the safety of children, staff, and families, we can’t afford to have a reactive mindset.”
Wood said while he would never want to make a tragedy a public issue, there was an incident in which a student was struck by a car in front of another elementary school in the county.
“Again, things like that happen, so we have to be proactive. Just as with any other safety concern, such as school tragedies, we have to plan for the worst,” he said. “That’s why we’ve implemented access controls, video surveillance, weapon detectors, and now panic button systems” in schools. “We can’t be reactive just because something hasn’t happened.”
While he acknowledged that closing part of Dogwood Road would be inconvenient, Wood said the added safety would outweigh the disruption.
“We are open to ways to increase safety there. This is the proposal VDOT provided us, again at no cost to the county or the school system,” he said.
Kendrick asked whether VDOT could improve sight distance by cutting back kudzu in the area or installing rumble strips or flashing signs to slow traffic.
Dan River District Supervisor and Vice Chairman Andrew Overby said he likes the safety intent of the closure but worries about traffic being diverted elsewhere.
“I know a lot of people have expressed concerns about making that turn with the angle that it is,” he said. “I despise roads that angle up onto the main road like that. Maybe the solution is to do something just during the school day, something that would be a little more efficient. That’s something for VDOT to talk to us about.”
Smith River District Supervisor Doug Perry said the turn from Dogwood Road onto Abram Penn Highway is already tight.
“If you’ve got someone coming from the (Reynolds) Homestead getting ready to turn onto Dogwood and there’s a vehicle on Dogwood, that vehicle almost has to move first in order to make that turn,” he said.
Perry asked whether the curve near Abram Penn would be opened up if the section of Dogwood is closed. Price-Hughes said VDOT has discussed minor improvements at the corners of Crossover Drive to Dogwood and from Crossover to Abram Penn to improve traffic flow.
“All the traffic would come from Abram Penn into the school,” she said.
Public Comment
Several residents spoke against closing the section of Dogwood Road.
Jonathan Witt, owner of Clay & Twig near the Dogwood and Santa Claus Lane convergence, said traffic to his business has already declined due to the temporary bridge closure on Dogwood Road.
“I’ve been working hard to grow Clay & Twig as a destination for the Critz side of the county,” he said. “Permanent road closures and redirecting traffic away from the west side of Critz make that harder—not just for my business, but for others dreaming of investing and building something there.”
He said many visitors to the Reynolds Homestead pass through Critz after their visit, which helps introduce them to small businesses like his.
“If Dogwood Road is closed, they will be pushed straight onto Jeb Stuart Highway, bypassing the west side of Critz completely with no easy route to explore what our community has to offer,” he said.
Wayne Clark, a Critz resident, said he’s not entirely for or against the road closure but believes alternatives should be explored first.
“Fixed speed bumps will slow traffic down—if that’s legal with a highway,” he said. “Traffic lights like the ones in Martinsville, where if you’re one mile over in a school zone you automatically get a speeding ticket from the camera on the light—that could work.”
Ed Anthony, a former HRMS student, said he’s never known of a bad incident at the intersection.
“That doesn’t mean that there hasn’t been, but I’ve never heard anybody talk about it,” he said.
Anthony thinks the issue could be addressed easier and cheaper than closing the road section and redoing the other road to handle the additional traffic.
Some of his ideas include increasing police patrols, writing tickets for speeders, installing a push button stop light at the school, increasing signs and lights indicating a school zone, and installing speed cameras with license readers.
Anthony said the board should consider the hardships a closure might create, especially for truck drivers with trailers who may struggle with the sharp turn required by detours.
“Somebody’s going to have to pay for this work that’s got to be done to that road,” he said. “They say, ‘Well, VDOT’s going to take care of that’—who pays VDOT? It may not be the county, but it’s still us, the taxpayers.”
Galen Gilbert agreed that if speeding is the issue, law enforcement should step in.
“I think the speed limit might be 10 miles an hour through there, and if anyone’s going more than 10—burn them,” he said. “If you’re speeding, you’re speeding.”
In other matters, the board:
- Heard from Steve Ferring on the need for additional park funding and use of the seven Ararat-area dams to promote tourism.
- Heard from Jackson Iavocone about tar clogging vehicle tires in the Woolwine area.
- Heard from Vance Agee about the need for a balanced county budget.
- Scheduled several public hearings for Aug. 11, including:
- Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) Ordinance levy amount
- An amendment to the Patrick County school division’s FY2026 budget
- Budget adoption hearing
- A proposal to move the Russell Creek voting precinct to New Hope Community Church.
- Approved a certification of no objection for the voting precinct change.
- Approved an ordinance to authorize payment of bonuses under Virginia Code 15.2-1508 (Kendrick dissented).
- Approved FY2025 appropriations for Social Services and Child Services Act programs.
- Approved a state bonus appropriation amendment.
- Directed the Parks and Recreation Committee to review park expenses and suggest improvements.
- Approved early distribution of annual contributions to county parks.
- Approved reallocating Business Development Center funds to cover project management costs for the West Piedmont Planning District Commission’s Appalachian Regional Commission broadband grant.
- Approved the June 9 meeting minutes, bills, claims, and appropriations.
- Read a proclamation recognizing Red Bank Ruritan Club’s 70th anniversary.
- Heard supervisors’ reports.
- Appointed Perry as the at-large member to the Dan River Alcohol Safety Action Program (ASAP).
- Approved a deed of easement for $1 per year.
- Directed the county attorney to issue a legal opinion on both of the Planning Commission’s draft solar ordinances.
