Dangerous Road?

RACHEL DICKERSON/MCDONALD COUNTY PRESS A section of Mud Springs Road, located near Anderson, has deep ditch.
RACHEL DICKERSON/MCDONALD COUNTY PRESS A section of Mud Springs Road, located near Anderson, has deep ditch.

A McDonald County resident and the county commissioners disagree over whether the condition of a road is dangerous.

Marvin Rucker of Mud Springs Road near Anderson says part of the road has experienced erosion, leaving the road narrowed with a four-to-five-foot-deep ditch on one side.

Rucker said, "It's been an ongoing deal for years. We have fussed and fussed. I have property, 43 acres, down below where the road is washed out, where I store my hay. There is a straight drop off. You've got probably a foot and a half between where the bank is and your tire. On the other side, you've got a foot to a foot and a half with a barbed wire fence. You really, really have to be careful. I have fussed and complained about this, and so has the neighbor."

He said people who live there know to slow down during the daytime, but he fears for strangers coming through during the dark hours.

He said one night in February, his dogs were barking, and he got up but didn't see anything. In the morning he discovered there was a car in the ditch. Fortunately, he said, no one was hurt. That day he called the county commissioners and went to the courthouse to talk to them in person.

"We have one of the best grader guys who takes care of our road. It has nothing to do with him," Rucker said of the road's condition.

Eastern Commissioner John Bunch, when asked about the subject, said all three commissioners had been out to look at the road and found the danger was overstated.

"He (Rucker) said it was near to the point he could barely get his tractor through. We didn't find that to be factual," Bunch said. "We found that to be a little bit exaggerated. All three commissioners found it was overstated, the danger of it."

General News on 04/25/2019