We wish to draw your attention towards the poor maintenance of roads, streets and bridges in our locality. Serval streets and roads in our Community have not been repaired for quite some time now, and it is a major issue safety wise. There are pits, ditches, potholes and un-repair bridges everywhere in Henderson, NC (Vance County).

The condition of these roads and bridges become all the more worse during the rainy seasons.  The road/bridge in particular, that we the Cheek/Mitchell family would like to bring to your attention is located on Jackson Town Rd. (Going Towards the Manson Community)

 This has become an even more huge problem for us recently, when due to the non-repairs of this bridge, one of our loved one’s loss their lives, due to the flooding of this bridge. Not only did it take our loved one away from us, but we soon found out, by the Vance County Sheriff Department, that a day or two after our loved one’s vehicle and body were pulled from the water under that bridge, that 2 other vehicles were found drowned at the bridge. This saddened us greatly.

From our own research, we discovered not only that this bridge has needed to be repaired for a long time now, but that the “Road Closed” signs, that are put up after heavy rainfall, are not the least bit secure.  They are easily moved by residence and locals who go fishing right off of that bridge. This is definitely unsatisfactory.

As concerned citizens, we are writing this letter to the Municipal Corporation of our locality, complaining about the bad condition of roads and bridges in our area. We would like to draw your kind attention towards the pathetic states of roads and bridges in our area, in hopes to bring forth awareness and much needed change, as it pertains to the betterment of our community.

For many years, a lot of the roads have been almost impassable. As for the bridge at hand, it has taken many lives over these years, and we say enough is enough. Something needs to be done, and it needs to happen sooner than later. At this point we are not understanding why this bridge, among others, have not been repaired. How long will we continue to wait? How may vehicles, and deceased bodies will you all pull from the water below this bridge, before something is done? Will it have to be one of our leader’s own loved ones, before you take matters more seriously? We think not! We will continue to raise awareness to these issues as long as we need to, until we will see the results that we seek. We are hoping that you will understand our concerns and begin to act speedily.

Our love one, Sophia Ree Cheek Mitchell, was a mother of four adult children whom she adored, she was a grandmother of two young girls, that she will now not get to see graduate from high school, or college, she was a sister, and her siblings loved her so much, and she was a friend to many. Her passing devastated us all.  We feel that her life was taken, and cut short, due to the negligence of DOT (as we were told by the Vance County Sheriff Department that the bridge issues are DOT’s responsibility) She was only 49 years old.

There should be government, or even local funding in place to take care of high-risk needs such as this, and if not, why not?  What needs to be done to set things like this in order. This should be a major concern to all of our city leaders, our city or town governing body, and as well as the residences here in Vance County. If Illegal dumping on these bridges and roadways are important as, we read that it has prompted Vance County Sheriff’s Offices deputies to charge two men with Felony “Commercial Littering” offenses, we know that the deaths of so many individuals due to lack of maintenance and sign/bridge negligent, should also be priority to our City Officials, DOT and the Highway Safety Department.