Ridgeway Church Residents Seek Paving
News August 7, 2015
With citizens calling for the paving of Ridgeway Church Road out Highway 282 due to traffic from Camp Highland, Commissioner Charlie Paris responds with a confident, “Yes.”
Locals Richard and Rachael Shooltz state they have been attempting to get the road paved for close to 3 years. Now, they have come to Chairman Charlie Paris with their complaints about traffic, dust, and speed on the road which leads to Camp Highland, a local camp that hosts Summer Camps, Group and Family Retreats, and Corporate Events.
While paving stands as the ultimate solution for the dust from the heavy traffic, it has been added to the paving list in a previous meeting, there is still issues of people speeding along the road.
For this reason, it seems not every resident on the road has been in favor of paving. The question arose when FYN sat down with the residents that if the road was paved, wouldn’t people drive faster on it?
The answer was immediate with several residents including property owner Amanda Waldrep,
saying they also wish to see speed bumps along the road to help with control of traffic.
Shooltz says another danger from the speed involves the children, recalling an incident when two small girls were chasing their house dog who ran into the street. Residents state that while there is already signs warning of children at play, the speed breakers would help to enforce the speed limit to ensure the safety of these children.
Bob Bousquette, a local resident near the camp, states, “We feel we’re being abused, there’s no communication.”
As FYN sat with Commissioner Paris, he replied, “I would be perfectly happy to call a town hall meeting” to walk through the project and the steps leading to it. Chairman Paris has also invited any with questions about the process leading to the paving of the road to come and speak with him in an effort to show he has been moving in support of this project.
Chairman Paris also stated speed breakers as a possibility of the paving project, but items such as speed bumps would require a community agreement. Chairman Paris has called for aid in pursuing the project to pave the road, offering agreements with Mr. Shooltz who said, “This dirt road is not meant to handle this kind of traffic.”
Upon further inquiry FYN found several ideas and options of how the community could expedite the process. Such things as collecting easements and right of ways would allow the paving process, which would likely require the road to be widened into two lanes. If the community also wants to pursue the speed breakers, a community agreement would help this as well. These are just a few ways the citizens could help to aid in the process.
It is difficult for people to see all the steps required to get to this paving done. Yet, the indications suggest Paris wants to not only show people the County’s progress on providing for this request, but to involve them in the project.
As the county moves forward with paving, they will also begin to search for funding and the possibility of having the State help with the project. This project is set to pave the road up to the end of the County Maintenance.
While the Commissioners have been in contact with the camp, FYN also sat down with Bill Chapman, Founder of Camp Highland, who said he wanted to look into options to help the neighbors to control the road’s issues with both dust and speed. One such option he offered was to look into extending the county maintenance to the Camp’s front gate. This would allow the County to pave all the way out.
A number of the citizens we spoke with, including Shooltz, Bousquette, and property owner Mary Ruth McDowell suggested they were looking for the Camp to provide monetary aid or even to provide their own pavement past the county maintenance.
Chapman did offer his full support for adding the pavement and speed bumps along the road saying they would be happy to work around whatever schedule the county required to pave, adjusting dates and events if necessary.
“We want our kids and the community we are a part of to be safe,” said Chapman.
At this point, it stands that the road must follow progress as it moves toward pavement. If the community could come forward with everyone’s easements and permission to widen the road and add speed breakers during the pavement process, then perhaps there could be a possible Springtime paving. However, even if it comes later, action taken in support of this process would do nothing but speed it up.
3 Comments
I own two and a half acres on ridge way church road and I can’t build on there because there is no cops patrolling the neighborhood to keep there’s away also the traffic is horrible threw the summer that dusty road is outta control it need widened and paved with speed bumps camp highlands tour buses and vans are outta control on that road I can’t take my daughter to my mother’s to play out side with out being scared of her getting ran over its about time for something to happen to that road the county has the money to help the people on that road so please do
I thoughts is I don’t think its our job to do the easments. As far as Camp Highlands I see that past the county maintaince should be there responsibility.. They are the ones that has the business at the end of the road. As far as Chapman for child safety he has never proved that to any of the residents. He has know for over two years Nolan is on a lot of medicine. If they was concerned they would have tried to help!!! To control there speed there is steps that could have been done but wasn’ t. Why couldn’t a staff line the visitors up and get them to follow them out? Just like a pilot car!!! No I do not beilve till this day we have been any concern to Camp Highlands as long as they make money and take care the kids they are responsible for!!!
Letter that was published in Times Courier
Letter to Editor
We live on Ridgeway Church Road. This was a very quiet and peaceful road until Camp Highland; a high income attended church camp; opened their doors. The Make a Difference Ministries, Inc., located in Marietta, bought the property and opened the camp without going through the proper channels per previous Commissioner Chastain. No impact studies, no asking the neighbors if they wanted to deal with the high traffic and dust, no they just bought the property and built a million dollar plus facility where the upper income folks from Cobb, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett counties send their children for over $600 a week. We moved here over 10 years ago with a dream of a peaceful living on a road to nowhere. We observed the daily traffic for a week before settling on this place. The neighbors went to work in the morning and came home at night. Peace and quiet with very little of the road dust disturbing the air, then came Camp Highland…..the weekends the campers are retrieved by the parents the dust boils over our property we feel like we are living on I-75 with the numbers of vehicles coming and going. Ongoing construction brings trucks and work vehicles all day and even during the night causing the dust to boil along with our tempers. We have has talked to the county about the road conditions for years without any solution being offered. The Times Courier published an article interviewing Bill Chapman about his dream of building this camp and how his dream had come true. The camp has a 1,000,000 dollar 17,528 square foot building to be able to accommodate 5,500 campers a year. This would involve parents driving to and from the camp on Saturdays to pick up the children that would mean 11,000 vehicles passing by our home during camping season. You would think the county and Camp Highland should be able to work out a plan with to tar and gravel Ridgeway Church Road which would improve the living conditions for the other residents. I would love to be able to open my windows again to enjoy the fresh air, the part of my dream Camp Highlands and Bill Chapman’s dream with the construction and traffic took away from me. One man’s dream should not destroy the dreams of others it should blend with all dreams to make a better world for all.
Commissioner Sanford and his sidekick, Jim Smith have been informed about the problem by residents and Camp Highland, they have a unique approach to the this problem, ignore it!
Dusted out,
Colleen E Bradley and James P Biondo
Our home is for sale it is the big one in the curve. We left because I could no longer breathe the air.