Land owners Charles Smith and Peter James came before the Brown County Commissioners Court Tuesday to address the issue of gating County Road 306 to limit the unnecessary through traffic that is responsible for dumping and causing damage to the neighboring tracts of land.
James and Smith last came before the court when the agenda item was to approve a historical marker on CR 306, at the Zephyr Bridge. Smith stated that he was against the historical marker because it would then prevent the closing of the bridge at any time in the future. The historical marker was approved but, the court said they would consider the reinstallation of the gate if it was brought forward at a later meeting. Smith had previously installed gates along the road to limit the amount of traffic, and said that it had significantly decreased the amount of dumping and other unnecessary traffic by the creek in the area.
Brown County Commissioner Precinct 3 Richard Gist said that he had talked to several contacts that were against the gating of the road. Land owner Carol Holloman presented opposition to the court regarding the gating, as it would further encourage the use of her circle drive as a turn around.
County Judge Ray West said that no further action could be taken without having a hearing with all land owners on County Road 306.
“We have done this before, it was a very short stretch, we had to have consents or objections from all land owners that were on that road,” states West. “It’s simply that they own property that abuts the road; we have to have their input in order to erect any kind of structure across the road.”
Charles Smith and the commissioners discussed that practically, the hearing would probably not happen and that the gates would not be reinstalled.
No motion was made on the gating of the road, but Judge West said that he wanted to see some type of resolution for Smith. He suggested that Commissioner Gist could be further involved in making some type of adjustments to the bridge area to help the situation since it is county property.
Other items addressed by Brown County Commissioners Court Tuesday:
*No action was taken on the topic of reinstating a burn. Commissioners will review the issue again next week.
*An employee change was approved at the Sherriff’s office.
*A 15 MPH speed limit was approved for Bally Shannon Road.
