Road issue for Pine Haven council

Among items of interest on the agenda of the regular meeting of the Pine Haven Council last Tuesday evening was the annexation of Boe Drive. This action was in agreement with a previous discussion with most of the residents of the roadway regarding their angst about improvements made to the dirt two-track.

The council, at the time, assured the citizens that there would be no development at this time; however, the property would be annexed on behalf of the town as the land had been donated to Pine Haven and to not do so would not be conducting the business with due diligence.

Walking path

HDR Engineering’s Heath Turbiville shared a map of the proposed bike/walking path with phase one of nine picking up where the existing walkway ends on East Waters Drive. Initially, the council chose to seek only $350,000 per phase in grants, the DOT representative, though, advised they aspire to $500,000.

Turbiville will adjust the length of each phase based on the extra funding as well to give the governing body an idea of how much more that amount will accomplish. The statement of interest must be turned in to the agency before the end of April and he plans to ask approval for one of the proposed phases at the next meeting.

Watching out for deer

Public Works Director Sunny Schell drove through town with Game Warden John Davis recently due to her concern over the state of the resident deer; due to their sickly appearance, “I was kind of worried about chronic waste disease.” However, Davis assuaged her worry, saying that he doubted chronic waste and telling her that when the deer’s ears are drooping, as she pointed out, it is often because of mites and they look “sick and scraggly” because of hunger.

Schell noted that several early fawns have died due to starvation. “Some people have been cutting cedar trees for them to eat; it’s just been a really hard winter,” she said.