THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 19, 1995 TAG: 9511190170
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PLYMOUTH LENGTH: Long : 103 lines
If the state Department of Transportation has its way, a new four-laned stretch of U.S. 64 in Washington County will go smack-dab through the middle of the Vernon G. James agricultural research farm near Roper.
To force relocation of the proposed limited-access, interstate-style highway, scientists and agribusinessmen on the south side of Albemarle Sound last week began bellowing protests like angry bulls.
``We are deeply concerned about the negative effects this road will have on the activities at the (Vernon James) Tidewater Research Station,'' said Dr. Harry Daniels, a hands-on professor at the 1,700 acre experimental farm east of Plymouth.
``The proposed four-lane highway with a four-foot concrete median barrier will pass between the Vernon James center and the remainder of the station,'' Daniels said in a letter to Dean Durward Batemen, of the North Carolina State University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
He said movement of heavy farm machinery around the research center would be slowed, creating a major traffic hazard for high-speed traffic on the new road.
In Raleigh, after a steamroller of complaints hit the DOT, a spokesman on Friday insisted the U.S. 64 improvements are still in the planning stage. ``We will be taking a close look at all of the alternatives,'' said Bill Jones, the official voice of DOT Secretary Garland B. Garrett Jr. Research center scientists said they had plans showing the proposed DOT right-of-way through the Vernon James farm.
NCSU, which operates the James research center, is a source of many of the increasing number of farm scientists who are stationed at the farm. Daniels is a NCSU specialist in aquaculture at the research station and his efforts put dozens of fish-farmers in business.
The DOT wants to build an overpass across the new highway to handle local traffic around the research center but that wouldn't help much, Daniels said.
``Although it has not been officially stated, we foresee that this overpass also will serve as on and off ramps for local traffic to access the highway. The increase in local traffic would further isolate the Vernon James center headquarters building from the recently constructed greenhouse facilities and maintenance and storage areas,'' Daniels added.
State Agriculture Secretary James A. Graham fired off his own tart letter to Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. about the proposed road.
``Anywhere this road crosses the Tidewater Research Station will have a negative effect,'' Graham told Hunt, a fellow Democrat who owes much of his support by farm voters to Graham's consistent election help.
Graham joined other protesters in emphasizing he doesn't oppose the widening and improvement of two-lane U.S. 64 between Plymouth and Columbia. For much of the Outer Banks and mainland Dare County, the road is the principal route to Raleigh and north-south interstates.
``(But) obviously I am deeply concerned about the impact this (proposed) road will have on the Tidewater Research Station. Research land takes years to develop and thousands of dollars are invested in a small quarter-acre plot.
Graham said members of his staff have told himthat the old and now-abandoned Norfolk & Southern railroad right-of-way lies just to the north of the present U.S. 64 and might be suitable for a relocated four-lane highway.
Several large-acreage farmers and agribusinessmen from Washington County and surrounding areas joined in the complaints.
``The proposed location (of the road) is going to have a big effect on prime agricultural land in several areas,'' said Joe Landino, president of the Blackland Farm Managers Association in Plymouth.
``The amount of land lost to farming is only part of our concern,'' Landino added, ``A limited access highway will disrupt entire farming operations. Farmers may be required to drive miles to access what is now one field.''
Hunt received another strong letter from Dr. John W. Van Duyn, a senior NCSU professor of entomology who makes his headquarters at the Vernon James station.
``The proposed route of new Highway 64 across the Tidewater Research Station is a bad decision and should not be sustained,'' Van Duyn told Hunt.
Van Duyn also criticized the DOT's plans to make the new four-laned highway a ``restricted access'' road east of Plymouth.
``The local economy through which this highway must pass should not be shut off from this new resource. Our livelihood is based on agriculture and roads are essential to this enterprise. A (restricted) Highway 64 would be a barrier to north-south movement and would serve little advantage to east-west movement by local citizenry.
``Our sacrifice would be in lost land, reduced land values, our taxes, disruption, non-access to road traffic going to the beach, and inconvenience. poorest counties in the state,'' Dr. Van Duyn told the governor.
All of the protesters sent copies of their letters to former state Rep. Vernon G. James, the Elizabeth City farmer who talked the General Assembly into establishing the $6-million research center several years ago.
James retired in 1992 after serving in the legislature on and off since World War II. He returned to the family homestead near Weeksville and resumed supervision of thousands of acres of potato and cabbage spreads he owned with his family.
``The legislature has invested millions of dollars in that research station and it would be foolish to allow a highway to spoil it,'' said James.
James still is a familiar figure around the Legislative Building, where he frequently visits to lobby a little and ``politick a lot'' with old friends and former colleagues. by CNB