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Road Hearing Gets Heated in Belmont County

Residents Are Split on Potential Closure of Road

Photo by Robert A. DeFrank Kermit Sweigart speaks out Tuesday during a road hearing about whether the Belmont County Commission should vacate a portion of McGregor Hill Road. He said the vacation might cause a delay for emergency vehicles.

People packed the Belmont County Board of Commissioners’ office Tuesday as residents along McGregor Hill Road in Pultney Township heatedly made their cases for and against vacating a portion of the road.

Commissioners J.P. Dutton, Josh Meyer and Mark Thomas heard the petition, but since Belmont County Engineer Terry Lively was not present, the arguments will be taken into consideration and a decision will be reached at a later meeting. The engineer is expected to give a recommendation by 9:30 a.m. Dec. 12.

The residents in favor of the vacation cite issues of speeding and road hazard as one reason.

The road is currently closed because of a slip. Resident Sharon Banig said when the road was in use, it would see motorists traveling at speeds in excess of 50 mph.

“They speed past our house,” she said. “There’s a lot of people who have gone down the road with trucks and dumped trash on property that does not belong to them … I’ve picked up whiskey bottles, pop bottles, beer bottles, syringes … on our road, and that when it was still open. It’s frightening. There’s a lot of us who walk, there’s a lot of children who play and ride their bikes up and down the road.”

She also said there are potholes and cracks in the road.

Mike Banig, who started the petition to close the road, said he was advised to obtain 10 to 12 signatures, and was able to obtain 22.

“I could have got a lot more,” he said, adding that he believed emergency vehicles do not use that route.

He said he has suffered close calls because of careless drivers.

In answer to questions from Thomas, Pultney Township Trustee Frank Shaffer said signs have been posted by the township instructing drivers to reduce their speed, but because there has been no official survey, the legal speed remains 55 mph.

“But they’re not legal signs, because a survey was never done,” Shaffer said.

“If the road does not go through a speed survey, then all township and county roads in the county are 55 mph. That’s the law,” Thomas said.

Opponents to the road vacation included Peter Mills, who said the road serves as a shortcut to the Ohio Valley Mall, workplaces and to locations in Neffs.

“The sheriff’s department and emergency responders use it for faster response time,” he said. “This end of the road was the only escape route during an evacuation of the 1970 Kiser Farm gas leak, when no capping equipment was in sight.”

He also pointed out that should there be an accident at a nearby gas well, this road is the only way out.

Debi Ponsetti, whose parents live the road, said emergency response time has gone from 5 minutes to more than 10 since the closure. Another resident, Kermit Sweigart, said he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage about 10 years ago, and a delay in medical response would have cost him his life.

“There is speeding on the road … but closing the road is not going to stop that,” resident Dixie Mills added.

Pultney Township Trustee Frank Shaffer said the portion of road is about a quarter of a mile and is frequently used, including by oil and gas traffic.

“It’s one of our heavily-traveled roads,” Shaffer said. “A group of people would like it to be closed. They would like a cul-de-sac road. That’s what they’re pursuing. They have their reasons, and other people have their reasons why they don’t want it.”

He said the township is working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to have the slip repaired.

“I feel the road is one of our better roads in Pultney Township, excluding the newly paved roads we’ve paved in the past few years,” he said.

He confirmed that more than 40 families resided on the road.

“My main concern is getting an (emergency) car or a fire truck to the houses,” he said. “That’s why I feel maybe it shouldn’t be closed.”

Andy Barricklow voiced concerns on behalf of his in-laws, who live on the road.

“My biggest concern is in an emergency situation … if the pipeline were to go or if the gas well were to have an explosion,” he said.

Barricklow asked what the process for restoring the road would be, should the county vacate it. He was told it would be a lengthy process.

“Vacating a road is a permanent decision to fix what I think are temporary problems in the form of speeding and litter,” he said.

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