Date Published: September 22, 2006   

Group petitions against bridge

Calhoun County association wants funds allocated to other projects

By LESLIE CANTU
Item Senior Staff Writer
lesliec@theitem.com

A lakeside homeowner's association believes it can obtain as many signatures against a proposed bridge connecting Sumter and Calhoun counties as proponents have collected in favor of the bridge.

Sandra Marks, a member of the Low Falls Homeowners Association, said the group already has 1,348 signatures and is on the way to collecting 1,500.

The petition is aimed at the Briggs-DeLaine-Pearson Connector, a controversial project connecting Sumter and Calhoun counties. U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., strongly backs the bridge, saying it's one piece of the economic development puzzle for the area.

Environmentalists have opposed the bridge, saying it will harm Sparkleberry Swamp, and filed a lawsuit earlier this month contending the environmental impact statement wasn't properly researched.

Marks said members of the homeowners association decided to start a petition drive after talking about how they all opposed the bridge and realizing they hadn't done much to make their opposition known.

"We just started with it here and it just mushroomed all over the place," she said.

Most of those who've signed the petition are from Calhoun, Orangeburg, Sumter and Clarendon counties, she said, with some also from Lexington and Richland counties.

Many people have kept quiet because they've been under the impression the bridge is a done deal, she said, and didn't realize that House members have the power to shift funds to other projects.

"We respectfully are requesting Mr. Clyburn to reallocate these funds to more desperately needed transportation needs," Mark said.

The U.S. 601 bridge is one such need, said her neighbor, Jane McPherson.

"We badly need a new bridge across the Congaree River, Highway 601. That thing is way below standards," she said.

The S.C. Department of Transportation has come up with a plan to replace the bridge, but environmentalists have sued because the plan calls for a series of causeways, which they say will block water in the swamp.

They would rather the SCDOT build one bridge, a plan that officials have said would add almost $40 million to the price tag.

McPherson said she'd like to see some of the money earmarked for the connector redirected to the U.S. 601 bridge so it can be properly constructed. McPherson has owned land in the area since the 1970s, she said, though she only began living there full time in 1997.

"It's one of the prettiest wild places in South Carolina," she said.

Marks said the group hasn't yet decided where they'll send the petition. She's hoping Clyburn will consider it, since most of the signatures are from his constituents. The signers include people of all races, incomes and party affiliations, she said.

The Army Corps of Engineers has previously said it received a petition with 1,500 signatures in favor of the bridge.