Despite strong objections from residents, the Patrick County Board of Supervisors voted to close a portion of Dogwood Road in front of Hardin Reynolds Memorial School (HRMS) at its Monday, Sept. 8 meeting.
The measure passed on a 3-1-1 vote. Vice Chairman Andrew Overby, of the Dan River District; Steve Marshall, of the Blue Ridge District; and Doug Perry, of the Smith River District, supported the closure. Clayton Kendrick, of the Mayo River District, opposed it, while Chairman Jonathan Wood, of the Peters Creek District, abstained.
Wood is employed by Patrick County Public Schools, which requested the closure.
Overby said he could not support leaving the road open because of the potential danger to students.
“I don’t want it on my conscience if a child were to get hit crossing the road from HRMS to the gymnasium,” he said. “It is a dangerous area. I think quite frankly, everybody’s inconvenience of driving around is immaterial compared to a child getting hit.”
“Safety of children. I’m always going to default to safety of children and staff. Always,” Marshall said.
Perry said school safety issues extend beyond traffic.
“I don’t want to put any ideas in anybody’s head, but any time you have an open campus that really creates additional situations, and it magnifies some bad things that can happen,” he said.
He added that closing the section of Dogwood Road would also allow for a safer crosswalk across Abram Penn Highway from HRMS to the Envision Critz community center.
“Because the closer to that hill you have a crosswalk—that’s a blind knoll and somebody pops over that and you got people walking across, where if you could have it further down and lower then people have more time to see crossing that crosswalk from the community center to the school,” Perry said.
While acknowledging the inconvenience to drivers, Perry said he believes the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.
“That will improve with VDOT’s work, so I don’t have a concern about the visibility piece. It may be a little inconvenience, but I think the total overall safety of the school outweighs the inconvenience,” he said.
Kendrick said he voted against the closure because of overwhelming community opposition.
“Four hundred and sixty plus people from that area don’t want it closed, and we shouldn’t have done it. VDOT (Virginia Department of Transportation) even offered two alternatives to it. We ought to have looked at it a little more, at least, instead of making such a sudden decision,” Kendrick said.
Wood abstained, saying he wanted more information.
“Options are always good, so you can weigh the good and the bad of everything, so I would have liked a little bit of time to look at those in order to make a more educated decision based on what they provided us,” he said.
Before the vote, VDOT Resident Engineer Lisa Price-Hughes presented alternatives to closing the 0.06-mile section of Dogwood Road.
One option was a speed table, a gradual version of a speed bump.
“That’s about 22 feet long, and it’s tapered. It does slow vehicles down, it’s proven to slow vehicles between nine and 10 miles an hour down from their current speed,” she said.
Another option was a rapid flashing beacon, a push-button crosswalk with signs to warn drivers that people are crossing the road.
“In conjunction with that, we’re recommending kind of redoing the crosswalk, extending some sidewalk so the students would be using the sidewalk all the way from school, across to the gym, and into the gym,” Price-Hughes said.
About a dozen residents held signs reading “No Road Closing” during the meeting.
Ed Anthony presented a petition with 460 signatures from residents, business owners, and farmers who opposed the closure.
“Everybody is basically agreed on what they feel we need more than anything else is an improved crosswalk there. Hardin Reynolds still has no flashing light on it. When people come up, they see this 25 miles-per-hour speed limit sign that’s right there at the school, so people don’t know any better. It’s 25 any time of the day, so there needs to be a flashing light,” he said.
Anthony suggested flashing lights, barrier rails to stop traffic during crossings, or speed bumps. He also said the closure would hurt local commerce.
“A tractor-trailer, I don’t care what we do up there, is not going to make that turn on Crossover (Drive). It’s not going to happen. I’ve had several guys that I already know of that have trucks, and they’ve gone up there and looked at it, and they said, ‘We will not be able to make it,’” Anthony said.
He added that buses and car riders would also be affected.
Joy Branham noted that HRMS has operated for 100 years, with its gymnasium in place for about 75 years.
“There has never once been a child hit by a car crossing that road,” she said. “A child has never been hit, there has never been an accident there. If that didn’t happen when they were running wild back over there, I can’t see it happening now when every time the children cross the road, they have a teacher with them, which wasn’t the way at one time.”
Branham also doubted that two school buses could pass each other on Crossover Road, even if widened.
“That is a very narrow place. If you’re going to really widen it, you’re going to have to take quite a bit, and you’re going to have to take people’s land. You’re going to have to do an awful lot of work, and you still” have a difficult route. “I don’t think it’s feasible,” she said.
Several other residents—including Galen Gilbert, Steve Hall, and others—argued that flashing beacons, radar enforcement, and additional crosswalk protections would be preferable to closing the road.
Some residents spoke in favor of the closure.
Kurt Bozenmayer said he’s happy to see the issue is being taken seriously by the board, the school system, and VDOT.
“I don’t often go through there…but if I go up Santa Claus Lane and take Dogwood out to Abram Penn Highway usually when I get to that last turn when Crossover turns out and you’re just going around that turn to see the gym there I watch the speed limit because I know there’s a school up there and I know there’s kids, but I’ve had people riding six inches off my bumper that would gladly go through that area doing 55 or 65 miles an hour,” he said.
Bozenmayer said something needs to be done, whether it’s closing the road or another suggested alternative.
“I’ve also come out from the Reynolds Homestead, come up Abram Penn Highway, and watched cars blow right through those stop signs from Hardin Reynolds road and from Dogwood,” Bozenmayer said.
Walter Scott, the Smith River District representative on the Patrick County School Board, spoke in support of the closure.
“One of the big hurdles that the school board has on any project is funding. We are very grateful for VDOT for fully funding this project, no local tax dollars. That says a lot in itself,” he said.
Scott asked those who are against the road closure to imagine facing and listening to parents of children who got “squished” in front of HRMS.
“Would you then support this? What is your number? One, two, three? My number is zero, I hope that’s yours,” he said.
After the vote, many attendees expressed frustration, with one man booing the board.
“The school always wins. Don’t worry, we’ll remember in election season,” Rachel Martin said.
Anthony asked if the board still wanted the petition from the 460 residents whose opinions were rejected.
Wood, who noted he had received six communications from those who supported the closure, said the petition and emails would be entered into the record.
When residents attempted to ask further questions, Wood said they would need to contact board members who supported the closure individually.
“Maybe they can give you a response,” he said.
