A road closure near Burlington’s northern periphery has prompted the city’s former mayor pro tem to make a detour back to city hall to press some concerns with the municipality’s leadership.
Celo Faucette ultimately approached the city council on Tuesday to inform its members about the problems that have arisen in his neighborhood ever since a bust pipe forced the city shut down a section of Park Road not far from the railroad tracks.
Faucette said that, in the wake of the road closure, the city has diverted traffic past his home on Faucette Avenue – a gravel byway that’s located in Burlington’s Glen Raven neighborhood. He went on to object to the steady procession of tractor trailers and large delivery trucks that he said have invaded this once peaceful street. He also complained that these vehicles have been barreling past his home at speeds which are entirely unsuited for the conditions.
“There’s a cloud of dust by the time these people come down,” Faucette lamented. “Our little street was nice and green. Guess what color it is now? Grey,”
Members of Burlington’s city staff assured the former mayor pro tem that they’re doing everything they can to fix the burst pipe which set off this whole chain of misfortunes. They added, however, that these repairs have been delayed by the need to coordinate the work with a couple of state-level agencies.
“It is a slow process working with the DOT and the railroad,” Burlington’s city manager Craig Honeycutt explained.
In the meantime, Faucette told the council’s current members that he’d do just about anything to have traffic restored to Park Road. He even offered to interrupt his retirement from public life in order to assist with a bond referendum that the council has floated to raise funds for street repair and sidewalk construction.
“If I can get a little help,” he added, “I’ll tell you what I’ll do – I’ll endorse your street bond.”
