PRINCESS ANNE — Public hearings will be 2 p.m. Tuesday, May 14 by the County Commissioners on requests by landowners to close roads that end on their properties.

The longest is more than a quarter mile of Halls Creek Road in Fairmount, which property owners Sarah and Vernon Vermillion and Gordon “Bunky” Ford stated in a letter to County Roads Director Woody Barnes has been a dumping ground for trash, construction materials and household garbage.

It’s become a hangout at night, and place where on- and off-road vehicles are driven “over the marshes causing damage that leads to erosion.” The property owners would like to gate the final 1,425 feet of the road, with the county having access as needed for maintenance.

The Fords made a similar request in 2007 but it met opposition and was denied. Since then, one major change was in 2020 when the Sanitary District decommissioned the wastewater treatment plant which had its discharge pipe at Halls Creek.

Mr. Barnes estimated that the cost of the roadbed would be $7,623 with additional expenses on the property owners to include advertising the hearing, attorney and settlement fees.

In Deal Island, John Jaeger is requesting the county close 129 feet of Edelen Webster Road, from the “End of Maintenance” sign to the bulkhead. He wrote to Mr. Barnes stating that his neighbor, David Perdue, would also be interested in this.

Mr. Barnes said only the two landowners are served by the road, which was assessed at $677.25.

One of the latest examples of a roadbed being sold to property owners was in 2021 when the final 210 feet of Cove Road in Chance was closed with the landowners dedicating a right-of-way for a turnaround.