By Sarah Campbell
scampbell@salisburypost.com
The Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education recently decided it’s willing to share an easement the district purchased to create a bus entrance to a future school in China Grove, but there’s a catch.
John Stone, the architect for a new primary health care facility that is set to be built on U.S. 29, made a case to the board last week, asking to use the easement to build a secondary entrance to the building.
Without the secondary entrance, northbound vehicles on U.S. 29 would have to make a U-turn to reach the medical facility, which will be directly across from the Stag N’ Doe restaurant.
“Our proposal would be to develop a stretch of road from Bostian Road to a turn in point in the China Grove medical center,” Stone said.
The board unanimously approved Stone’s request to build the joint road with stipulations requested by Gene Miller, the district’s assistant superintendent for operations, made during the meeting.
Stone approached Miller about sharing the road last month.
Miller orignally told Stone that sharing the easement would interfere with the school system’s plans and compromise student safety, but the school board decided to discuss the matter during its February meeting.
Miller told the board last week that after talking with officials from the N.C. Department of Transportation a compromise is possible.
“I spoke with DOT reps myself this week and the comment there was that the road probably could be shared in a fairly safe manner,” he said.
Miller said DOT officials suggested requesting that each lane of the road the medical facility builds be 12 feet wide along with adding a third gravel lane.
“There wouldn’t be a lot of expense to do that,” he said. “And at the time that we build our school then (DOT) actually might have money to come in and pave the bus road for us.
“It looks like it could be a pretty good situation for us.”
Stone said he would take the new proposal to his clients.
Contact reporter Sarah Campbell at 704-797-7683.