Not much left in county’s road plan

By Doug Thompson

The number “one” dominated an eight-minute public hearing on what’s left of the Floyd County’s secondary road improvement program Tuesday night.
Just one project—widening and improving 1.8 miles of one road—remains in the plan, and just one speaker spoke at the hearing at the county administration building.
And that speaker’s comment had nothing to do with the single project.
Severe cuts in funding from the Virginia Department of Transportation have gutted the county’s once ambitious secondary road program, and even that one remaining program is subject to funding that has not yet been approved.
“Normally, by this time in the process, we have the budget for the program,” VDOT highway resident engineer Bob Beasley told the Board of Supervisors. “We don’t have any indication yet on funding.”
The only project left in the plan calls for widening and improvements of 1.8 miles of Rte. 880 starting at the Franklin County Line at a cost of $1.8 million over the next three years.
Hearings on the six-year plan used to draw crowds of county residents, and past hearings were held in the Circuit Courtroom at the Courthouse.
On Tuesday night, two residents appeared for the hearing and one—Little River District resident Phyllis Beale—spoke.
Beale praised VDOT for its handling of the heavy winter snows this season and then asked why nothing has been done about draining problems from clogged culverts on Paradise Lane.
“Three years ago, on June 27, we got three inches of rain, and it clogged the pipes,” Beale said. “I’ve been trying to get it fixed since then.”
Beasley promised to look into it. The hearing began at 7:03 p.m. and ended at 7:11.
The hearing marked Beasley’s last scheduled appearance before the board as the county’s VDOT liaison.  A restructuring of the transportation agency is closing the Hillsville residency next month after 61 years and Beasley is retiring.
The highway engineer told the board he still does not know who will serve as the county’s liaison when the county comes under the jurisdiction of the Montgomery County VDOT office next month.
That, he said, is just one part of many unknowns facing VDOT.
“We’re still calculating the cost of this winter,” he said. “We don’t know what the future holds.”