By Dean Poling
HAHIRA — Old U.S. Highway 41 will remain just that — the same old road that the Georgia Department of Transportation proposed widening but many residents wanted left unchanged.
Earlier this week, the DOT did not place the Highway 41 widening project on its priority list, meaning, as one DOT official reportedly said, the project is “a dead duck.”
County Engineer Mike Fletcher represented Lowndes County at the meeting and presented a letter from County Commission Chairman Rod Casey to the DOT, requesting the state not fund the widening project at this time, County Manager Joe Pritchard said Thursday.
Given that the Georgia DOT faces a $7 billion shortfall during the next six years, according to a recent Bill Shipp column in The Valdosta Daily Times, DOT Commissioner Gena Evans accepted the request to not fund the project.
By asking the state not to fund a widening project at this time, rather than requesting the DOT completely abandon the concept, future Lowndes County commissioners can still request the DOT widen Highway 41 to meet traffic demands years down the road, Pritchard said.
Conceived several years ago, but with little public knowledge until late last year, the proposed project would have widened Highway 41 from North Valdosta Road to Hahira. A variety of widening plans were under review, and some smaller widening possibilities, such as a turn lane by Valwood School, may still be proposed.
But the proposal to widen the entire portion of Old Highway 41 into Hahira was met with strong opposition from residents along the road. Petitions collected hundreds of signatures. Residents made their opposition known to the city of Hahira, the Lowndes County Commission and state officials. Hahira officials scheduled a public hearing early this year, offering residents the opportunity to ask questions and share their opinions.
“We’ve been in our house for 22 years, and we always heard rumors about widening 41,” Sue Braun, a vocal opponent to the widening project, said Thursday, “but then those rumors became a real threat.”
Braun opposed the widening project because it would encroach on too many property owners’ lands, threaten homes, and ruin Highway 41’s scenic view.
“Some people were born and raised on that land,” she said. “It’s generational land, having been in the same family for years.”
She sees the DOT’s decision to not place the widening project on its priority list as a victory.
“We’re thrilled,” Braun said. “It meant an awful lot that everyone was willing to hear our voices and stand by us.”
