Changing road names concern residents

In a follow up to action taken by the Surry County Board of Commissioners at its June 3 meeting, where commissioners approved a list of names for new roads and changes to a handful of existing road names, more information was requested by the public.

During the meeting, Chair Van Tucker called for a public hearing on the matter but there were no members of the community present to take part in the discussion.

Following the board’s action and subsequent reporting thereon, there has been some concern from residents that road name changes may have been made without their knowledge and a request to see a list was made.

The following road name changes were approved by the board at the June 3 meeting:

- Tilley McGee Lane near Sam Marion Road in Pinnacle had its name changed to Tilley Lane.

- Bunker Meachan Trail near Pratt Road in Dobson will now be known as Fairway Farm Lane.

- Also in Dobson, Rayson Winery Lane near Rockford Road had was approved for a name change to Winery Lane.

- In Lowgap, Dreamweaver Trail in the area of Old Lowgap Road had its name changed to Nikkis Way.

- Leon Trail in Mount Airy off of Northeast Pine Street has been renamed to Yonder Hill Lane.

As previously reported, the board also changed the threshold for renaming an active roadway from a two-thirds majority of those living on the road in question to a three-quarters majority to ensure that the will of the people affected by the change is accurately reflected. Tucker asked Harrison if she had achieved the two-thirds assent for the road names that were changed. “If the road name changed, we did, if it’s a new road we assigned the new road with a suggested road name by the citizen if they abide by the ordinance,” Harrison explained.

Last week, there were also 17 new road names created under the same action by the board of commissioners. Harrison shed light on the process for naming of new roads stating that, “When they go through the central permitting process if there are two or more structures, we have to assign a new road name to that.”

“And that is for 911 purposes as well,” Tucker added.

Commissioner Larry Johnson observed during the discussion that a large number of new road names bodes well for the housing crunch in Surry County. “With this many new roads, it appears to me that there is good progress in building homes,” he said.