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Talk of bridge over I-77 angers residents
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Published: August 16, 2009
Some called it a plan to a bridge to nowhere. Others said there wasn't a plan at all.
Emotions ranged from nostalgia to anger during a meeting that amounted to a kind of home version fight against town hall.
But in the end it seemed the matter was largely a case of miscommunication on the part of those presenting a plan to build a bridge over Interstate 77 and misunderstanding on the part of the neighborhoods that could be affected by such a plan.
The approximately 90-minute meeting was held in the back yard of the Oates Road home of David Stutts and included about 25 residents, two Mooresville town commissioners and Mooresville Mayor Bill Thunberg.
Along the front of his front yard, Stutts had stretched out some tape marking off how much of his property would be lost if Oates Road is widened in advance of the bridge project.
"The fact that all of you showed up tells me you think this is a very serious matter," Stutts said. "My goal in all this, and I think most of you would agree, is that we stop this project from getting any kind of momentum."
Stutts was referring to a plan to build a bridge over I-77 that would connect Oates Road to Midnight Lane on the west side of the interstate.
Nearby property owner Dennis Murdock said the project is "of marginal value," but added that his "real heartache with it is how they plan to raise the money for it."
Murdock and Stutts said one of the possible means of funding the project that town and state leaders presented to them involved a special assessment of their property that would greatly increase their tax responsibility.
Those talks took place at a workshop meeting on the matter held on Aug. 6.
Stutts said, for example, that if the plan were to go through his tax bill would go from just more than $1,000 a year to about $20,200.
Helen Collins, who described herself as a widow living on a fixed income, said the special assessment would "take up my entire Social Security check."
Stutts said his mother-in-law, who lives nearby, would be in the same situation and would be forced to sell her property.
But that, too, would be almost impossible, Stutts said, because with the added tax no one would want to buy it.
But Stutts said the matter was not simply one of money. He then spoke of the history of his family's involvement with his property.
Stutts became emotional speaking about his father, who very recently died in a strange accident that occurred while he was mowing part of the property and his riding mower flipped over near a pond and trapped him underneath it.
"My mom and dad bought this land and did all the clearing, which was back-breaking work," he said. "And then, other than digging and pouring the footings, our family actually built this house ourselves."
Stutts said his connection to the land is not unique. "Almost every one of us has a story like this," he said. "This is very personal to us."
But Thunberg said that any plan to build a bridge was in its infancy.
"I can tell that everyone is concerned about what's going on," he said. "But as it is today, there is no project to speak of. The meeting you attended was for a potential project. There is no project."
Thunberg repeated that message several times during the course of Thursday's meeting.
The mayor told the citizens that what is going on now is simply a feasibility study.
"The developers said, 'What is a way of getting a bridge built to the other side,' " Thunberg explained. "And they are just beginning to look at different options. The study of those options reached a certain point and it was felt that it was a good time to bring this to the public."
Thunberg said that before any real plan got off the ground, it would take at least 10 different meetings and public hearings before the town's Board of Commissioners.
But several people said that if the plan is this raw, they were misled at the workshop meeting.
"If we misunderstood all this," Stutts said, "we had some help misunderstanding it."
Murdock felt that some of that help was provided by Mooresville Town Commissioner Chris Carney, who was at Thursday's meeting.(Commissioner Frank Radar was also present).
Murdock's anger at Carney could be barely be restrained.
"This is wrong. This is wrong, " Murdock yelled at Carney. "And you should not be a politician."
By the end of the night, however, calmness prevailed and everyone seemed to understand that any plan to a bridge to anywhere was a long way off.
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