Crowfield Adds Voice to Brickhope's Road Safety Concerns

Brickhope residents came to City Council on Tuesday to ask council members to support safe speeds for the Henry Brown Jr. Boulevard extension that is expected to run through their community.

They left with the support of council members to maintain a low speed on Montague Plantation Road, which currently ends at Brickhope. But, more importantly, the Crowfield Plantation Homeowners Association announced its own petition for safer travel on its roads and a pledge of support for Brickhope's efforts.

Mary Reilly, a Brickhope resident, asked each council member where they stood on the community's petition drive to maintain the speed limit and the hope of residents that truck traffic will be kept off the road.

Members generally agreed that that banning trucks on the planned byway would be a challenge, but there was near universal support for a safe speed limit.

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Councilman Mark Phillips noted that the S.C. Department of Transportation needs the city's OK for final plans. "Stopping it would probably not be prudent," he said of the boulevard extension, which is expected to relieve traffic issues on Red Bank Road and Liberty Hall Road. "But we do have bargaining power."

Barbara King, president of the Crowfield Plantation Homeowners Association, said that the community has started its own petition to get truck traffic off its roadways and make the streets safer.

"We're watching the traffic grow and grow and grow," King said. "They go tearing past my home. You can't step off my property — you won't make it."

King told Brickhope residents that Crowfield would like to join them and assit in their petition. "I think it's time that people in the community stand together," she said. "The people in my community are fed up with this."

While Mayor Michael Heitzler said he would support petitioners on the speed issue, some were critical of what they interpreted as a sarcastic tone.

"Are there any roads where trucks should be allowed?" Heitzler asked. "If they don't go through your neighborhood, they're going to go through someone else's."

Heitzler appologized, but stressed repeatedly that he believes the Henry Brown Boulevard extension will be the safest byway through the city.

"We know we need the road," noted Kathy Wilbert, president of the Brickhope homeowners association. "We know we need the road widened. But the trucks coming through Montague Plantation is not going to be safe." 

Wilbert challenged the mayor when he noted that plans for the road have been in the works for more than 15 years. "Things have changed," she said. "The community is changing."