Residents oppose abandonment of Colleton County roads; council leaves roads under county maintenance

Dozens of residents and farmers told the Colleton County Council on Jan. 7 that abandoning maintenance of portions of Backman Road and Rydell Cemetery Road would harm farms, deny access to family cemeteries and create traffic‑safety risks.

Marion Barnes, who said her family used the roadway since 1969, told the council that three cemeteries rely on the road for access and that her community uses the route for farm vehicles and to reach storage and grain bins. Barnes said the road segment proposed for abandonment is approximately four‑tenths of a mile and that, according to South Carolina Department of Transportation data she cited, nearby alternate routes carry about 900 vehicles per day on one highway and 1,250 on another.

Other speakers included farmers who said they regularly move wide agricultural equipment and hay and that closing the local roads would force those vehicles onto higher‑speed state highways where the narrower travel lanes and increased traffic raise safety concerns. Several speakers said the roads have been county maintained for decades.

Jacqueline Jenkins described repeated flooding at her home and its effect on health and habitability, saying that "every time it rains, I have an anxiety attack" and asking the council for ditch maintenance and a bulldozer to open drainage channels. Multiple commenters also raised neighborhood safety concerns, including requests for lighting at a dangerous intersection and more sheriff's office patrols.

Council members said the request before them was to abandon maintenance, not to change legal ownership, and noted a long local practice of retaining maintenance of roads that the public continues to use. A council member with long tenure described the distinction between legal title and long‑standing public use, and the council indicated that, in the absence of a motion to abandon maintenance that received a second, the county would continue to maintain the roads as it has historically.

The council had tabled two related resolutions for public comment earlier in the meeting. After the public comment period, neither resolution to abandon maintenance was adopted; one council member explained that no motion to abandon maintenance received a second and the status quo of county maintenance remained.