County judge: Hinson Road to remain open
After speaking with representatives from Delek (formerly Lion Oil), Union County Judge Mike Loftin said Friday that a portion of Hinson Road the company had petitioned the county Quorum Court to close will remain open, albeit with some new features.
Last February, David Oliver, then-security administrator at the Delek: El Dorado Refinery, asked the Quorum Court to close about 1,600 feet of Hinson Road, citing public safety concerns.
Brian Ratcliff, an attorney representing the refinery, appeared at the October Quorum Court meeting to broach the issue more formally; that meeting was well-attended by Hinson Road residents there to voice their opposition to the potential closure.
The section of Hinson Road the Delek representatives asked the Quorum Court to close would have started about a quarter mile from the intersection of Robert E. Lee Street and Hinson Road, where Delek Transportation is located, and would have ended on the north side of Friendship Primitive Baptist Church.
Residents of the road said closing a portion of it would cause a larger safety issue, as emergency responses would have to be re-routed around the road closure.
At that time, Loftin said he would appoint a three-person panel to weigh the pros and cons of closing the portion of the road.
Since then, Loftin has had the opportunity to meet with representatives from Delek, he said, and resolved to leave the road open. To ease the company’s safety concerns, Loftin has added concrete barriers along a fence around oil tanks stored at the facility.
“We just put some concrete barriers in front of a short section to keep someone from maybe running through and hitting some tanks,” Loftin said.
Loftin said he is also planning to add “rumble strips,” raised strips across the road that change the sound a vehicle’s tires make when they drive over, at either side of the part of the road Delek asked the county to close. He will also lower the speed limit on that portion of the road to 15 miles per hour.
“It’s just for safety through that short strip there,” Loftin said. “I won’t reduce the speed until I get the rumble strips down, kind of as an attention-getter.”
The county will pay for the rumble strips, Loftin said. He is awaiting a bid on the cost of the strips and installation from Time Striping, a Van Buren-based contractor that currently paints the road divisions for the county.
“I had the concrete already, so we just had to move it,” Loftin said. “The strips aren’t that expensive so we’re going to take care of that.”
The City of El Dorado has faced problems recently due to the privatization of a road used by city residents. Griffith Street, a connecting road between North West Avenue and Jefferson Street that is adjacent to Mellor Park Mall, spent several weeks during the latter part of 2019 and the start of 2020 riddled with potholes. The potholes have since been temporarily filled using an asphalt cold patch.
The street is privately owned by Dr. Surendra Agarwal and his son, Sajal, who also own Mellor Park Mall. City officials
say that since the road is private property, it cannot be maintained with city funds. The Agarwals filed a lawsuit last year disputing that, claiming that because the city has an “apparent, implied easement,” they should “be responsible for and undertake immediately the repair and maintenance of the storm drainage pipe” on the road.
While the portion of Hinson Road Delek proposed closing would have been closed to thru-traffic, it is unclear if the county would have continued maintaining the street. As it is, Loftin said he thinks the resolution to keep the road open will be one all parties can be happy with.
“I think that’s a good solution for both parties right now,” Loftin said. “It’s staying open so everybody should be happy.”