Audio clip
David Ashburn
Residents in Noble, Ga., plan to finalize a petition Monday night asking Walker County officials, FEMA and federal and state representatives why East Reed Road has been impassible for four months.
"The guys in the community have threatened to get their backhoes and bulldozers and fix it themselves," said Dr. David Boyle, president of the Noble Neighborhood Association.
A bridge on East Reed Road went down during flooding in September. County officials blame the lack of repair on slow response from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and uncertainty over the design for the fix.
Walker County Coordinator David Ashburn said he's expecting the final documents from FEMA any day, but said he should have already had them.
"We've been waiting now eight weeks for what they originally said would be four to six weeks," he said.
He said he hopes work on the bridge could begin by March.
Drivers must take a detour that Noble resident Helen Pace said forces too many cars and trucks down narrow, crumbling Loughridge Lane and up to Center Point Road.
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Staff photo by Dan Henry/Chattanooga Times Free Press Motorists take a detour onto Loughridge Lane after a bridge washed out off of East Reed Road in LaFayette, Ga.
"All of those people on (Highway) 95 come this way to go to (U.S. Highway) 27 and go to Walmart," she said. "And you know how many people go to Walmart."
Commissioner Bebe Heiskell said the county had first thought a culvert would be adequate to repair the road and took steps in that direction. Then officials had to make a quick about-face when they learned a bridge was needed.
She said the county would expedite the bid process and other steps as soon as FEMA signed off on the funds.
"I know the neighborhood is very anxious to get this completed," she said.
For those who live on East Reed Road, the roadblock is a safety issue and an annoyance, Mrs. Pace said. At Thanksgiving, she had to meet her out-of-town children on Highway 27 to show them the new way home.
"It's an extra mile and a half plus the hassle of getting out," she said.
During the same flooding in Catoosa County, a culvert on Mount Pisgah Road washed out. After commissioners expedited the bidding process, the project is nearly complete, according to county staff.
Mr. Ashburn said Catoosa County did the project before its funding was approved by FEMA, a gamble Walker County couldn't afford.
"They took a chance," he said. "They've got a lot more money than we do."
Dr. Boyle said he understood that budgets were tight, but he's afraid the road isn't a priority for county leaders.
"It's not a road that any of them drive," he said.
Andy began working at the Times Free Press in July 2008 as a general assignment reporter before focusing on Northwest Georgia and Georgia politics in May of 2009. Before coming to the Times Free Press, Andy worked for the Anniston Star, the Rome News Tribune and the Campus Carrier at Berry College, where he graduated with a communications degree in 2006. He is pursuing a master’s degree in business administration at the University of Tennessee ...
Loughridge Lane is going to be in need of worse repair than East Reed once this is all said and done. I sure hope none of those county cars fall into the crumbling culvert on the road already. The repairs that have already been done due to pipes burst and other issues have been terrible. I guess when one end is sunken, the county will just leave it so you have to go out the other end like we all had to do when the state police had one end blocked for a year after the whole crematory mess. I have tried to contact Heiskell's office and left messages. Tried is the operative word here. The traffic that is now on this road and the safety we used to enjoy for our pets and children are a thing of the past. It would be nice to have had our road widened and lines painted on it if we were going to be a detour for the bridge.
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