Rita Holden’s shoulders lost a bit of their tension June 17 as she drove through her community of Silver Creek in Mill Spring.
She watched as crews worked Friday morning patching potholes in the asphalt along Bishop Lane, a welcome sight after three years of efforts to push the state to repair the roads.
“It was a feeling of relief that it was finally happening and also a feeling of pride that we did this as a group,” Holden said. “I’ve just been so happy all day.”
Holden is the vice-president of the Silver Creek Community organization, which initiated a petition three years ago for the state to take over the maintenance responsibilities of the almost-40-year-old subdivision’s roads.
“The homeowners’ association disbanded in 2001 and ever since then the roads have just gone down and down and down,” said Holden.
Formerly known as Land of the Lakes, this 369-parcel community was first established in 1972. Community members said they spent a great deal of time and money back in 2009 to change the name of the community to Silver Creek because of the bad reputation attached to Land of the Lakes.
In general, organization second vice-president Don Yarbrough said, neighbors really want to make a difference for each other.
Yarbrough moved to the neighborhood four years ago.
He said residents have worked diligently to improve their community by putting in place community welcome signs, building flower boxes and having regular litter collection days. He said many of the men in the community have even gathered to fill the worst potholes with gravel.
He said it is that community spirit that led neighbors to push for state assistance.
Not long after they moved to the neighborhood in 2007, Holden and her husband put up flyers asking community members to meet at the Mill Spring Fire Department to discuss the road situation. She said response was lackluster at first until longtime resident Wiley Gainus got involved. He went door-to-door to get everyone’s attention.
“We let everyone know, ‘Look we need to get everyone on board and see what we can do about this,’” Holden said.
Yarbrough said Gainus noticed more than 30 kids standing at the end of Silver Creek Road in the dark of the morning waiting for the school bus. He said the main goal initially was just to get the school bus back in their neighborhood.
“It’s been a long, long process,” Yarbrough said. “It’s taken three years since we started this project again and it had already been attempted at least twice before but residents were told by the N.C. Department of Transportation (DOT) that we were not eligible for any DOT funds.”
Eventually, after pressure from residents, county officials began looking into what the state requirements were for DOT funds and discovered The Donner Law, Yarbrough said. The Donner Law that was passed in 1975 stated that anything registered before that year could be turned over the state for maintenance.
The law said such roads, if they met other requirements such as containing eight homes within a given mile, were eligible for $4,000 per permanent household, amounting to a $32,000 credit with DOT.
Yarbrough said they knew that wouldn’t be enough even for the first 1.3-mile section they wished to repair immediately. So, this time last year, they approached Sen. Tom Apodaca and Rep. David Guise for assistance.
In April, community members discovered the two legislators had in fact appropriated $75,000 each from their contingency funds for the project.
The project will cost more than $250,000 for the first phase or 1.3 miles. Yarbrough said DOT officials notified them that once this phase was finished most of the adjoining roads would qualify as well.
“They started work today and they’ve made a lot of headway,” Yarbrough said on Friday. “I think this is really going to help community relations because this has been a thorn in a lot of people’s side for a long time.”
Residents have been told crews should complete the first phase by this fall.