We’ve been here before, but it didn’t get quite this far.

The U.S. 421 rest area in southern Sampson County has been shut down, state transportation officials seeking a permanent closure of the 48-year-old facility. A drastic drop in visitor numbers coupled with the cost to maintain what state officials label one of the three least-visited rest areas across the state are cited as primary reasons.

The move comes as the N.C. Department of Transportation is evaluating rest area maintenance contracts across the state, which have already been slashed by one-fourth.

The rest area near Six Runs Creek in Sampson serves just 37,230 visitors annually, according to DOT figures, putting it in the bottom three of the 58 rest areas across the state. The cost to maintain the rest area, per user, is the second highest at the Sampson location, state figures show. In 2019, the average cost per user statewide of all 58 sites was $0.61 — at the U.S. 421 site is was $2.40, they say.

Concrete barriers are already blocking the roadway leading to and from the area, so the outlook appears bleak right now.

DOT officials will be on hand at the Sampson County Board of Commissioners’ March 2 meeting to further discuss the matter, and we hope there can be a suitable resolution that doesn’t take the rest area away, nor put the onus on the county to maintain what will most assuredly become an eyesore.

A similar thing happened back in 2011, as a possible closure of the U.S. 421 rest area by the state was met with such adamant opposition that the matter was delayed before ultimately being discarded.

Then, state officials pointed to traffic shifts from U.S. 421 to I-40 that produced visitor tallies which no longer justified the U.S. 421 rest area, nor its exorbitant maintenance price tag.

County officials, local residents and state lawmakers, notably Senator Brent Jackson, rallied support to keep the rest area intact, the senator touting it as a “small piece of history” not only to those who live in the area, but to travelers who look forward to a few minutes of tranquility as they pass through an agricultural behemoth.

In a 2011 resolution of support, the county board stated that the impact on travelers and rural tourism was not properly taken into account when considering the closure.

“Rural tourism equates to dollars for our local economies,” the resolution read. “Rest areas such as the 421 site serve to make travel in our rural communities pleasant and convenient and closing such site removes this convenience, rerouting our travelers, and potential revenue, out of Sampson County.”

We believe all of that is still very true, as is the sentiment from some of the many residents who made their voices heard back then.

Then-county board chairman Jefferson Strickland called the stop an “institution” and “landmark.”

“We cannot let that happen,” Strickland said of a potential closure to the rest area. “It’s great for the community, as well as the traveling public. If this is closed, maintenance is still necessary to keep the grounds clean and mowed in order to prevent it from becoming an eyesore of what has always been a well-kept area for travelers to stop and rest or enjoy a picnic.”

“It provides a great service not only to city and county citizens, but thousands of tourists,” resident Gary Mac Herring stated at the time. “It’s a much more scenic route and slower pace, and showcases our rural and agricultural resources.”

“I just can’t imagine closing the rest area, with the expense of it already being built,” another resident David King said then. “We don’t have much from DOT. It’s not like we’re asking DOT to build a rest area, just to keep the one we’ve got.”

While we are no stranger to cutbacks and understand the state’s intent to hack away at every budget item they possibly can, we don’t believe our rest area takes that big a chunk out of DOT’s pie nor North Carolina’s. And while it certainly would allow DOT to fund some other project somewhere else, our concern is Sampson and what an abandoned rest area will mean here.

But the visitor numbers cited by the state have dropped significantly since. In 2010, there were roughly 55,000 visitors and a cost of $2.14 per user to keep up the facility, while in 2019, there were just 37,230 visitors with the cost ballooning to $2.40 per user.

Nine years ago, a concerned public and those who could throw around their weight saved the rest area. This time around, it will take a similar groundswell of support to lift the concrete barriers and avoid the demise of a half-century-old facility.