There is obviously a widely circulated rumor that Heritage developer Andy Ammons was responsible for rebuilding the bridge on Rogers Road and widening the road to the east past it.
“That is incorrect. We were never responsible for widening at Rogers Road bridge or Forestville. I don’t know where they got that information,” Ammons said Wednesday morning.
When Ammons was developing the plans for Heritage in the middle to late 1990s and getting approval for them from the state Department of Transportation and the town, the bridge was on Forestville Road, a state-maintained road, and it is still on a state-maintained road though it has been renamed Rogers.
To get access to South Main Street and from there to Capital Boulevard, Ammons bought land that had been part of the Holding dairy farm to reconfigure what was then Rogers Road and curve it to meet what was then Forestville Road. Then he built the new Rogers Road out to South Main and named it all Rogers. You can still see part of the old Forestville Road behind the complex that includes Shuckers restaurant. It deadends at the CSX rail line to the north and runs southeast to another dead end.
After he read the Gazette editor’s notes for that section of the candidates forum Tuesday night, Ammons wrote: “I agree with Greg, Ann and Brian (Pate). It is way past due and every day that they put it off is another day that someone may be badly injured, or worse. As the owner of the golf club, I too am very concerned about closing our most direct connection to South Main and U.S. 1, particularly during the busiest golfing months. It will have a negative impact on our business.
“But to wait for another solution that is years away is not prudent. We’re always playing catch up, as it is. We need to encourage DOT to improve our community, not be a last-minute hurdle for projects they’ve been working on for years. I’d agree with Brian (Pate) in that we need to focus on the positives (safer pedestrian paths, smoother traffic patterns, awesome greenway underpass and connectivity).”
