For the past 19 years neighbors along Cool Springs Circle in the Fairview area have been trying to get their dirt road paved. This week, they succeeded.
“The dirt road is pretty much a big mess. There’s a lot of pot holes,” Sabrina Chitwood explained to Habersham County Commissioners. “They scrape it a lot but it doesn’t really do any good.”
County staff members say the steep grade of the road makes it “unmaintainable” and neighbors say it is sometimes impassible.
“My neighbor had a really bad stroke and the ambulance and the fire truck got stuck in the ditch,” Chitwood says. “They had to put her in a chair and tape her down and then haul her out with a four wheel drive just to get out.”
She also says the dust from the road exacerbates asthma and other breathing problems and the bumpy ride knocks cars out of alignment.
Chitwood isn’t the first person to try to get Cool Springs Circle paved. Back in 1996 all the neighbors along the road petitioned for pavement. There’s no word on why that petition failed but the current residents have reason to celebrate. Citing public safety concerns as their primary motivator, Commissioners unanimously approved paving the road at an estimated cost of $251,886.58.
Work should begin by September. About a dozen Cool Springs Circle neighbors who attended Monday’s meeting burst into spontaneous applause after the vote.
