UNION COUNTY, N.C. — A Stallings man said his months-long effort to revitalize an intersection near his home is moving ahead, despite hitting a few speed bumps.
David Allison is a man on a mission.
“Hideous conditions here, people have told me it looks like a bombed out airstrip,” Allison said while looking at pictures of the Potter Road and Pleasant Plains Road intersection.
What You Need To Know
Intersection project, which started in 2013, continues to face delays and speed bumps
David Allison, a Stallings resident, said he will continue drawing attention to the area and need for improvement
State funds, originally meant for the project, are now in doubt
Since of May 2021, Allison has been actively campaigning to improve the intersection, saying it needs almost a complete overhaul.
“I just think complaining gets you nowhere, you need to take some action,” Allison said about his website and public advocacy efforts.
His website, FixPotterRd.com, has links to sign a petition, with more than 1,000 signatures, contact information for state and local legislators and pictures of the intersection’s problem areas.
The retired utility inspector said he was tired of hearing empty promises and delayed timelines on the project, which started in 2013.
You can read an entire history of the project here.
“I think we need to all be reminded, that we get the government we desire. People need to vote, people need to pay attention,” Allison said about his campaign.
He put his time and effort where his mouth was, devoting almost every day from May to November of last year standing at the intersection with his sign. The sign directs to his website, and Allison said as people learned about his campaign he started getting honks, signatures and the government’s attention.
“State Rep. Dean Arp, [Republican] arranged for $1.6 million, to come to Stallings, to repair that intersection,” Allison said about the state’s most recent budget.
But, the town and Allison said the 2021 budget item hit a snag, with Senate language making it murky on what the money could be used for to improve the town’s roads.
“It was reported to the town that the Senate put this additional language into the budget over concerns that projects receiving additional grants would unfairly move ahead of other transportation projects on the State’s “STIP” ranking system (which prioritizes funding for state transportation projects based on a scoring criteria). However, this additional language is potentially problematic because the town had requested these funds to help with the Potter/Pleasant Plains intersection and this intersection is mostly owned by the state (and not the town),” a portion of Stallings’ website reads.
So, in the meantime, Allison is continuing his campaign.
“People hoot hoot and holler and blow the horn at me,” Allison said about his hours spent standing at the intersection.
The issues with the intersection are all encompassing, Allison claims, citing traffic, potholes and cracks. In his view, the entire intersection needs replacement, as well as improvements to the surrounding underground infrastructure.
“I hope we have lanes through here, turning lane, functional traffic lights. We have sidewalks. We have landscaping and something to look better than these ditches,” Allison said while standing at the intersection.
Allison said infrastructure improvements under and next to the roadways would help bring development to the intersection as well.
“Stallings could be a lot better,” Allison said. “It’s growing by leaps and bounds, the town could be — this could be a good face to put on the town.”
The town government wrote on the project’s information page it received preliminary word in January of this year the $1.6 million could be redirected to other government work, giving a green light to equivalent cash for the intersection.
However, a few weeks later, the town said the state informed them the money could not be used how it had planned.
“On 2/14/22, the [North Carolina] [Office of State Budget and Management] office communicated that the $1.6 million in state grant funds could not be used for the town’s selected expenditures, which essentially means the project has an estimated project budget deficit of approximately $1.58 million,” the town’s update read.
In a later update, dated February 28, 2022, the town wrote, “the Town Council decided it was interested in pursuing statewide contingency funds, in determining if ARPA funds are eligible for this project, and are interested in NCDOT taking over this project and making it part of the Old Monroe Road project (due to the potential overlap between the projects, potential cost reductions due to economies of scale, and NCDOT’s greater capacity to manage state road projects). The town is exploring these potential options.”
It’s unclear what council’s decision will do to the project’s timeline, which has suffered several setbacks since 2013.
However, in September of 2021, NCDOT installed left-turn lights at the intersection, which the town paid to install. Allison said the installation was an improvement but still causes traffic issues and should be considered a temporary improvement, not permanent solution.
Meanwhile, he said he’ll continue with his sign and website, something that’s already made him small-town famous.
“People recognize me in the grocery store, the drug store, I even had someone at the beach approach me and say, ‘Hey! I see you out there, you’re the Potter Road guy!” Allison said with a smile.
But his whole effort can be paved down to one thing, he’s a grandpa trying to make a better world for his grandkids.
“I feel like one person can make a difference in our world, and I’m trying to get that across to my grandchildren. Don’t let the first 'no' be the end, just keep on asking,” Allison said.