AYNOR - More than 400 people crowded into the Aynor High School Auditorium to find out more about several potential routes for the proposed Interstate 73 project.

Some were upset about proposed routes running through their property, others had environmental concerns, but most had questions for project officials.

“One of the routes on the map comes off the Highway 501 Bypass, right through Penderborough,” said Lindia White, a resident of the small community between Marion and Mullins.

White was concerned that the proposed route would run through her property and that of the Little Bethel Church and cemetery.

“We’re concerned about whether this is their preferred route,” White said. “I realize this is early and things will shift, so this route may change depending on what people say at these meetings.”

And White’s concerns were exactly what organizers of the meeting were looking for, said Mitchell Metts, the South Carolina Department of Transportation’s project manager for I-73.

“When you start showing lines and proposed routes, that’s when people start coming out and letting us know potential problems with particular routes,” Metts said. “After all, they’re the ones who live there and know about these problems.”

Representatives of environmental groups also are concerned that wetlands in the area could be damaged by the project.

The Carolina Coastal League initially endorsed plans for the interstate as long as the highway doesn’t go south of U.S. 501.

One of the potential alternative routes being presented to the public runs south of 501 for a short distance.

“We put our stake in the ground,” Nancy Cave of the Coastal League said. “We’ve said that if the road stays north of 501, we’ll support it. Outside of that study area, the whole process has to start all over again.”

Cave said that growing momentum for the I-73 project has become political, which has muddied the waters.

“The politicians are now fanning the fires with all these other proposed routes,” Cave said. “And the political will to get this done is enormous.”

Cave’s organization isn’t the only one that could throw up road blocks. Representatives from Wildlife Action Inc., a wildlife conservation organization based in Marion, were on hand to voice their displeasure at some of the proposed routes.

Supporters of the project were intent on reassuring concerned citizens that the proposed routes are simply possibilities and that everyone’s concerns will be considered, which put White’s mind at ease.

“I’m satisfied with some of the information,” White said. “They said they have to take into account historical sites, churches and cemeteries.”

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