SUMTER, S.C. — If you’re living on a dirt road in Sumter County, you might be seeing some changes based on a Sumter County Council discussion.
Some residents say the road conditions make it difficult to get emergency services, mail or important medicines delivered, and want the county to maintain these private roads.
“It may seem like a minor thing, but it’s actually huge based on the quality of life that we can live out here,” Richard Patrick explained. “It's a great community as you can see, it's a very beautiful community and it's a nice day out here but we do have one lingering problem, such as this dirt road here. It's kind of okay right now, because it hasn't rained, but if you see if it rains, you’ve got holes all here that's filled up with water and everything, makes travel very difficult.”
Patrick has lived on a dirt road in Sumter County his entire life. When it rains, he says the holes fill up with water and make it difficult to get through, but Patrick says his community has it easy compared to others.
“This problem is bigger than this neighborhood,” Patrick shared. “These dirt roads are fairly okay. But it's got plenty of residents around the county in rural communities that their dirt roads are horrible.”
Stephen Hermanson has lived on a dirt road for 30 years and says it takes regular maintenance and funding from neighbors.
“It’s a matter of either everybody has to contribute money to have it done and materials brought in or we have to do it ourselves and a lot of the folks who just aren't physically able to do that,” Hermanson detailed. “We just recently put 10 tons of dirt in a hole. It was getting larger and larger and it just…you have to do some or it gets to be impassable.”
It’s a concern Councilman Carlton Washington cited in his effort to revise an ordinance that doesn’t allow the county to use public funding to maintain private roads, which he says have been getting worse over time.
“After 1990, the requirement was that any residents that lived on the road would have to bring the road up to code, including paving the road before the county would accept it, which essentially knocked anyone out from being able to do that,” Washington explained. “So as a result of that for the last 35 years, private roads who wanted to become a part of the county system, but couldn't because it was too expensive, their roads have deteriorated over time, and they've deteriorated to the point that they can't get essential services: health services, public safety services, emergency services, delivery of health products, UPS, United Postal Service, FedEx, you name it. And these roads are also used of course for school travel, but buses can't go down these roads either.”
On Tuesday evening, in front of what Washington says is the largest crowd he’s seen come to a council meeting, leaders like Artie Baker discussed the issue.
“I still am uncomfortable,” Baker said to council in the meeting. “I think we’re going to get sued…”
This concern is based on an opinion issued by the South Carolina Attorney General involving paving roads in Richland County, which says “public funds may not be expended for private purposes, but may only be expended for public purposes.”
However, Washington points to a section of that ordinance, which says the local county council can determine what constitutes a public purpose.
“How do we get the numbers and miles of these roads and the number of these roads?” Councilman Charrles Edens expressed concern in the meeting. “It’s impossible.”
Washington responded to the question from Edens. saying after collecting data, the focus would only be on the roads in the worst shape, not all unpaved roads in the county.
“There may be five roads, there may be 10 roads, there may be 20,” Washington said in an interview. “We just don't know. And so what we need staff to do is to compile some data for us and then once we get the data, then we'll tackle the data and figure out the best way to address this problem that's been existing for the last 35 years.”
In total, Washington told council there are 139 dirt roads total in the county, according to Sumter Public Works. Not all of them would be taken over by the county, Washington says.
When it comes to funding, Washington says the number of roads needing maintenance might factor into the total sum. Councilmembers expressed concern about the idea of raising taxes, but Washington says there might be alternative solutions.
Right now, Washington says the ordinance has been turned over to the Public Works Committee, which will work to collect data and develop a possible plan. Washington says the committee has asked him to serve as chairman of what Washington’s calling an “ad hoc committee.”