“To date, despite our civil efforts to do so, we the undersigned have specifically not been able to have any productive conversation with Hampton County Council due to Council’s time restrictive public comment rules which govern the public meetings. Moreover, Hampton County Council has refused to meet with the community or to provide an explanation other than: ‘the dispute is between the State and a Private Landowner.’ It is these conditions, and the denial of an opportunity to even discuss a timetable for the production of a remedy, that requires us to raise this appeal to you, as Elected Representatives of the affected area.”

“Pocotaligo Road is a major thoroughfare. Residents of the community where the bridge is out have been and continue to be subjected to the additional expense of time and money to repetitively travel the additional miles to enter and leave the community. The rerouting of school buses has put an additional burden on students and families. Restrictive emergency vehicle traffic access into our communities creates a greater risk to the health and safety of our community and to the individuals who are charged to provide those essential services. These and similar conditions are believed to pose the treat of increases in our insurance premiums. The bridge outage has restricted access to church cemeteries, and funeral processions have been substantially inconvenienced. We are taxpayers and in 2018 we simply deserve better. Our rights and interests should not be ignored.”