DATE: Thursday, November 27, 1997           TAG: 9711270689

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B8   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY SUSIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: SUFFOLK                           LENGTH:   78 lines

SUFFOLK DELAYS EMBATTLED ROAD EXTENSION

East Suffolk residents - hundreds strong - rallied so persuasively against a half-mile of pavement that the City Council has agreed to stop the $1.7 million project until a citizens panel can consider the plan and other options.

Councilman Leroy Bennett, who represents the Nansemond Borough - where the road would be built - said the project's biggest hurdle was not including citizens in its development.

``If the community had been involved, we wouldn't be where we are today,'' Bennett said.

The Finney Avenue Connector was intended to improve traffic flow through the East Suffolk neighborhoods, city officials said.

The road would ruin their neighborhoods, nearby residents countered.

Finney would be extended across three sets of railroad tracks, then run parallel to Division Street to connect with White Marsh Road. The street would be an alternate route from east Suffolk to North Main Street, bypassing the slow-moving East Washington Street corridor.

But from Hollywood and Jericho, Lake Kennedy and Lloyd Place, Rosemont and East Suffolk Gardens, residents opposed the plan.

``The entire east side of the city of Suffolk is totally, 100 percent set against it,'' said T.C. Williams, president of the Rosemont Lloyd Place Civic Association. ``If possible, 101 percent.''

Preliminary plans called for demolishing two houses, both abandoned, and a business. But many residents distrust the information from city officials.

``They are going to tear down more than they pretend,'' said Dewey Grasty, whose house backs up to the proposed site. ``They haven't told the truth about what they're planning to do, to start with.''

Grasty, 81, has lived on North Division Street nearly 50 years. Looking out his back window at a high wall that would muffle noise is not appealing.

``In other words, you'd be blocked off,'' he said.

Verna Alston, who also lives on Division, hopes she and her husband can keep their modest home.

``It's not much, but it's ours,'' she said. ``But who wants to live all jammed up like that?''

The community wants the project killed, said Williams, the civic league president. ``Then we can talk about alleviating traffic on Washington Street.''

About 9,000 vehicles a day travel between Main Street and White Marsh Road, said public works director Thomas G. Hines. About half would use Finney to reach the post office or various shopping centers, he said.

Opponents fear the new road would attract more industrial truck traffic. The area has numerous peanut-processing plants. A temporary truck bypass now crosses East Washington at the intersection of Liberty and County streets, which do not match in alignment and make turning difficult.

Some fear the city might widen White Marsh Road, creating a southbound truck bypass.

The only solution, they believe, is building the long-delayed southeast leg of the U.S. Route 58 Bypass.

The east Suffolk residents twice packed City Hall. Ida Outlaw McPherson presented petitions that she said contained signatures of more than 400 opponents.

Three civic leagues considered alternate routes. Each would benefit a neighborhood, but none would address the East Washington problem, Hines said.

Civic league representatives together drew up a fourth option, extending Finney much farther west than White Marsh. The city excluded that option.

Clinton Jenkins, president of the Suffolk Civic Forum, said any plan would have impact. ``Some people have to lose for progress,'' he said.

The panel will consist of citizens from throughout the city. They will work with the Virginia Department of Transportation to come up with alternatives. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

JOHN H. SHEALLY II/The Virginian-Pilot

``They are going to tear down more than they pretend,'' said Dewey

Grasty, 81, whose house backs up to the proposed Finney Avenue

Connector. ``They haven't told the truth about what they're planning

to do, to start with.'' Grasty has lived on North Division Street

nearly 50 years.

Map

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu