By Reilly Gaunt
rgaunt@therepublic.com
HOPE — A local resident came to both the Hope Town Council and the Flat Rock-Hawcreek (FRHC) School Board meetings Tuesday night to ask about the same topic: sidewalks.
Daniel Elliott was asking about a specific sidewalk on Hauser Road near the tennis courts at Hauser Jr.-Sr. High School.
Elliott said he did not come to either meeting to criticize the governing body, but rather to get some clarity regarding the purpose of the sidewalk. He said he wanted to know if the walkway was for all people as the town allegedly claimed, or just for the students as the school allegedly claimed.
When Elliott asked the town council about the main purpose of the sidewalk, Hope Town manager Jason Eckart said that the town’s main objective with the path is to “get our youth off a public roadway and into a safer spot.”
When posed with the same question at the FRHC School Board meeting, Vice President Brian Rose gave a similar response.
“We’re trying to help the students,” Rose said.
One of Elliott’s biggest complaints with the school board was the fact that the school put in a fence on this new sidewalk. He said he sees the fence as a money grabbing device only used to get parents to pay before watching tennis matches.
The town council members could not give an answer one way or another regarding the fence, but Superintendent Shawn Price said that the fence was placed to help control who enters and exits school property during events.
Price also said that the sidewalk is still currently under construction and should not be open for use until the tennis courts are open in the spring.
Price and Eckart said that the town and the school board worked together to come up with different new sidewalk ideas and compromised on the one by the tennis courts. The project in the end though is on school property, so Price said that the school has the final say in the timeline and use of the pathway.
Elliotts said he was most irritated by the lack of transparency and miscommunication regarding the fence and sidewalk situation in the first place. He said he felt the town council and school board should have better communication.
After both times for public comment, the different boards commended Elliott for caring enough to attend public meetings and bring his concerns before them.
Currently, the sidewalk in question remains off-limits to everyone, student or otherwise, while it awaits completion later this spring.
