By Daniel L. Bamberg
Residents on Banks Chapel Road in West Blocton have become more and more frustrated with the County Commission and Engineer as days go by. They believe their road should be paved. Even more, they believe the road should have been paved a long time ago.
The road is just over 2 miles of dirt, filled with ruts and covered in black coal dust that has some residents concerned about what they are breathing. Banks Chapel services 2 churches, a community center, a cemetery, a school, three businesses and at least 34 houses. Every surrounding and connecting road is paved. It is literally an island surrounded by pavement.
Reverend John Banks recently spoke about his frustrations with what he considers a wrong that gone without a righting for too long. Rev. Banks is a descendent of the Banks family, which inherited land following the passing of a slave owner in the 19th century. The slave owner willed 2,000 acres to his former slaves. For generations the Banks Chapel community was predominately African-American.
“That is why this is such a personal issue to me and so many others,” explained Rev. Banks. “I don’t believe this is discrimination now, but the discrimination of the past has not be righted. A lot of the roads around this road were paved over twenty years ago. There are several, however that were paved over the past ten years. It is insulting to see roads without churches, without cemeteries, without schools and businesses and with less than 9 houses on them, get paved while our road is ignored continuously.”
The Banks Chapel Community is no longer predominately African-American. It is now a nearly even mix of Caucasian and African-American citizens.
Citizens of the Banks Chapel community believed that they were third in line to be paved among roads in Bibb County. This is how it was expressed to them recently. Upon corresponding with the County Engineer, Steve Avery however Banks Chapel Road is actually 12th priority in any future road paving projects.
“Yes, Banks Chapel is third on the list – the second list,” explained Avery. “There are still 9 roads remaining on the initial list of 21 which are still yet to be paved. So technically there are 11 roads ahead of Banks Chapel Road.”
Commissioner Walter Sansing serves the district of the County Commission where Banks Chapel is located. “I’ve spoken in length with the Engineer and have a better understanding of the system which rates the roads for paving priority,” explained Sansing. “A lot of things are factored in to making the decision. It isn’t as if the County or the Engineer are trying to avoid paving the road.”
Sansing however furthered his comments, “With that being said, there isn’t an excuse as to why this road has taken this long to get any attention. What isn’t factored into the compiling of listed priority is how long Banks Chapel has been in severe need of paving. There has to be something we can do.”
Avery stresses that there is no political agenda in the county’s way of determining priority for pavement. “This is the reason I created the points system,” explains Avery. “When a road is brought to my attention I survey several factors. Criteria is weighed and given a set of points. If it has a church it gets x amount of points. If it services a business it gets y amount of points. House density gets a certain amount of points. Safety issues get a certain amount of points. This system takes human error, discrimination, politics and favoritism out of the equation,” Avery concluded.
Avery came up with the points system after the county made a decision a few years back to use the money accumulated from the five-cent gas tax to primarily fund the paving of dirt roads.
According to Rev. Banks and other community members it is Avery’s specific “criteria” which has them scratching their heads as to why the road has not been paved.
“First of all every road surrounding or connecting to Banks Chapel road is paved,” explained Banks. “Based on the criteria he gave us we do not understand why this road is not a priority. When we bring that up all we here from the Engineer or the Commission is that we are a priority. Well I haven’t seen any action to show that. We’ve been hearing this and that for years, but nothing has happened”
“There are 36 houses accessed by Banks Chapel Road,” Banks explained. “There are 2 churches on the road. There is a cemetery on this road. There is a community center on this road. There is a school (Tri-Wil Boy’s Home) on this road. There are three businesses on this road. There is a bridge on the road. There are safety issues, not to mention the excessive damage it does to people’s vehicles. Banks Chapel Road is 2.1 miles of unpaved, bumpy road with ruts, holes and all sorts of problems.”
Sansing recently acknowledged the constant amount of maintenance that occurs on Banks Chapel. This occurred at a Banks Chapel Community meeting where residents met with their Commissioner, Mr. Sansing to express their concerns.
He not only expressed the amount of work, which the road requires, Sansing also explained that Banks Chapel should be the county’s top paving priority.
“Banks Chapel Rd. should be the top of the list,” Sansing stated. “It has been too long and we as a county need to do what we can to correct the mistakes on the past. We do not need to be going backwards twenty years. If this road cannot be funded by the five cent gasoline tax, we need to look for alternatives.”
Following the November 22nd meeting of the Bibb County Commission Sansing spoke at length with County Administrator Mark Tyner and Engineer Steve Avery. The result of this meeting was that while there was no way to use the five cent gas tax on Banks Chapel any time in the near future, something had to be done soon.
Tyner then set up a meeting later on with Peggy Matthews of Community Consultants. Tyner notified Sansing of what came from that meeting. Following that, Sansing called Reverend Banks suggesting that things appear to be moving forward for Banks Chapel Road.
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