TURKEY — The traffic along the busy Highway 24 continues to be a concern for residents who call Turkey home. Mayor Max Pope said it’s a “problematic” issue.
During a Wednesday meeting, Pope reported that a North Carolina Department of Transportation engineer from Wilmington is visiting Turkey to study if Turkey needs a stoplight on the highway, where yellow caution are now.
“There’s possibility that we don’t have enough traffic coming from Union Road and Faison Road, but to justify it, we have more than enough traffic on 24,” Pope said. “When we get ready to test it, we’ll just have to see what happens.”
Pope said the area is congested from 6:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.
“I watched traffic sit on the south side of 24 on Union School Road and I watched traffic sit on the north side of the railroad tracks and it’s taking them two or three minutes before they can get out and turn out onto the road,” he said. “The scary part is that there’ enough room on both sides for cars to pull up beside one another.”
He continued a driver’s view being blocked of oncoming traffic.
“It’s an accident that already has a place to happen,” Pope said. “It just hasn’t yet.”
Blight
Along with colleagues from the Board of Commissioners, Mayor Max Pope was excited to announce a few plans to beautify Turkey and goals to improve safety on Highway 24.
During a Tuesday meeting, Pope brought up blight issue and infrastructure improvements made in recent months, especially with the look of the railroad area, which runs next to the highway. Now, the mayor would like to remove overgrown shrubbery and excess grass in areas beyond the center of town. One idea was to add flowers, along with other plants.
“It will have to be a community effort,” Pope said. “What we we want to add more color.”
Additional details will be presented this year and may take than a year to complete the green project.
Other goals for beautification is to replace power poles on Highway 24 and Faison Road. The poles were reported to Duke Power. Along with other areas, he also addressed vines and overgrowth reaching the power lines.
“That’s been reported and we’re asking them to comes and clean it up,” Pope said.
Along with Duke, the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) is also scheduled to return to Clinton to make repairs to storm drains on the west side of Faison Road. In January, NCDOT made a report about clogged drain and ditches, which made a water stream go across the road. Town commissioners applauded NCDOT for their work and progress.
