An anonymous person painted the word “more” over a county no dumping sign at the entrance to the narrowest part of the NW 40th Ave. When the road was open, only one vehicle at a time could drive on this section. There was no place to turnaround if two vehicles met.
By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
A section of dirt road barely wide enough for a single vehicle was closed Tuesday by the Levy County Commission at the request of a Chiefland farmer who said his land along the road has been used for too long as a garbage dump.
Rollin Hudson, whose family owns most of the land on either side of the half mile portion of NW 40th Ave. that was closed, said he didn’t have any other solution to the illegal dumping than to close the road.
“I don’t know what else to do. I don’t know the answer,” Hudson said.
Hudson is a Chiefland City Commissioner but his duties as an elected official weren’t in conflict with his request to close a portion of a road outside the city limits and under county commission jurisdiction.
Hudson and farmer Chris Hardee, who owns a piece of land on one side of the rutted road, filed a request to have the county abandon and close the road. Closing the road allows it to revert back to private ownership. The owners can fence off the road. Hardee was unable to attend the hearing due to injuries suffered in a horse-related accident.
The pothole-filled road is so narrow that two cars, even small cars, couldn’t pass through from different directions. The county road department wanted to widen road at one point but would have needed right-of-way from Hudson. He didn’t want to give up his property to have the road widened, according to Alice LaLonde, administrative manager. The county felt the best thing was to close it.
LaLonde said the county’s new graders are too large to pass through the narrow road. She said the older graders are small enough to grade it.
The road passes by several homes on the south end, but the homeowners aren’t blocked from reaching U.S. 27A. However, the road, which once an unbroken stretch from U.S. 27A to U.S. 129, is no longer a through-road. The closed portion will stretch from NW 105th St. and NW 110th St, just under a half mile long.
Anne Dougherty, a college educated woman who lives on 38th Ave., a dirt road located about a block from NW 40th Ave., was among the 13 residents that signed a petition opposing the closing of a portion of NW 40th.
“This would be such an inconvenience for us,” Dougherty said.
She said closing the road would benefit the Hudson and Hardee families, “and a lot of families would be in disarray.”
The petition noted that the road has been open to through traffic for as long as anyone can remember.
“We have used 40th Ave. all our lives and last year during the storm it was the only way out. Also, it helps us to easily visit our long time neighbors and get back and forth to stores and schools so please consider the families living in this area,” the petition said.
A small minority community lives on NW 40th Ave and near it.
No one lives along either side of the closed portion of NW 40th Ave. It is farmland on both sides. The county had posted a no dumping sign near the entrance to Hudson’s property, but someone spray painted over the word “No”.
Dougherty said illegal dumping isn’t isolated to Hudson’s property. She said people also illegally dump garbage on 38th Ave., which is her street.
Board of County Commission Regular Meeting December 3, 2019; Posted December 3, 2019
