Sunday, December 30, 2007
Editorial: Maybe if he offers $1 billion for the road
Pulaski County residents still have uses for Neck Creek Road.
From the RoundTable blog
Read the latest entries
Southwest Virginia's only billionaire wants Pulaski County to give him a road. Randal J. Kirk's personal wealth might lend some insight into the arrogance of his request, but it is irrelevant to the substance of it. Officials should look at his petition as if it had come from any other citizen, and as such petitions go, it is almost laughable.
Kirk lives on nearly 7,000 acres north of Radford. Neck Creek Road slices through his property, and he wants to close off those sixth-tenths of a mile.
He and his employees argue the road is dangerous and not part of the state's secondary road system. In the interest of safety, they say, the county ought to give it to him so he can put up gates, guard houses and cul-de-sacs.
Neck Creek is nowhere near as dangerous as they portray it. The county Sheriff's Department reports all of two accidents in theplast year and a half, and crimes have been few. The only thing really in danger is Kirk's ability to isolate himself from the outside world.
Meanwhile, the Virginia Department of Transportation reports that Neck Creek actually has been part of the state's secondary road system ever since localities started turning road maintenance over to the state. VDOT has maintained it for 75 years.
Neck Creek is not some abandoned right of way. Other people live along it and use it. They moved there with the reasonable expectation that the county would maintain connectivity.
If Kirk gets his way, they would have to drive miles out of their way to reach some destinations. Worse, in an emergency, fire trucks and ambulances could also have to travel the longer routes or hope Kirk's gatekeepers would let them pass.
Kirk knew about the road when he moved onto his property. If he did not like it, he should have chosen a different tract. Neck Creek still has a job to do in Pulaski County beyond being one man's private driveway.
