RALEIGH COUNTY, W. Va. -A proposed change that would allow a new truck stop to be built is receiving mixed reactions after dividing the community and the County Commission, who voted on the matter during their last meeting.
The Ghent and Flat Top Lake community is no stranger to trucks, with the president of the Raleigh County Commission, Greg Duckworth, estimating that potentially over one thousand trucks roll through the area each day.
Go-Mart proposed a truck stop be built, which would require rezoning part of the land from residential to commercial, something not everyone in the community is on board with.
“We’ve been batting this around for several weeks. We had a public meeting at Ghent at the fire department out there, and, you know, the public outcry, for me personally, it was the public outcry and the folks living out there who just didn’t want the truck stop and the truck traffic in their community…” says Duckworth.
However, opinions were not entirely one-sided.
“It would have benefited the entire community in more ways than one with the retail and… because there’s second phases that was coming in with this and that’s what would have benefitted the community better,” Donnie Epling, a Shady Springs resident and a manager of a Ghent restaurant.
“Well, from what I hear, they have voted against it. That’s going to make a lot of people happy…” says Guido Passafiume, a ski tech at The Ski Barn, also located in Ghent, “…I think it was split, but I think, if there was a margin, it was against.”
The division extended into the County Commission itself with votes on the matter also mixed. Despite this, they decided to continue with the rezoning, but rejected the claim that a truck stop fell under the definition of “commercial,” denying the recommendations of their Planning and Zoning Board.
“…Commissioners have some different views on different parts of it, but, at the end of the day, for me, it was the public outcry that folks just didn’t want it out there, and I think it’s our responsibility to stand behind them,” says Duckworth.
Although Go-Mart did not get the go-ahead to build the truck stop, the newly rezoned commercial property is planned to get some use, with suggestions including doctor’s offices and a post office.
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