Officials eye old Syria-Etlan link

Drivers now have only one direct single-road link between the Madison County communities of Syria and Etlan. But they may get a second one.

The Madison County Board of Supervisors is considering whether to resume maintaining the eastern half of Shotwell Hollow Road (Route 611) that connects Syria and Etlan. Currently, Shotwell Hollow Road starts at Bohannon Road (Route 600), near Graves Mountain Lodge in Syria, and runs about a mile east before reaching an overgrown, unmaintained section. At one time, Shotwell Hollow Road was maintained and drivable another mile east until it intersected with F.T. Valley Road (Route 231) in Etlan.

Although a number of longer, multi-road routes connect Syria and Etlan, only Etlan Road (Route 643) now provides a direct, single-road link between the two unincorporated north Madison communities. Some want the old section of Shotwell Hollow Road maintained so that there is a second, direct single road connection. They say it would be useful for accessing their isolated property along the road. It would also provide a short cut for the many visitors coming from the Shenandoah Valley to attend Graves Mountain Lodge’s festivals and other events.

Representatives of two Madison County residents who own property along Shotwell Hollow Road appeared before Madison’s board of Supervisors this month, following an earlier discussion of the road at last month’s meeting. One property owner, Gary Kardos, wants the section of the road open, but another, Douglas Dear, doesn’t.

Concerns about the road

At the supervisors’ October regular meeting, they heard about a request from Dear to officially abandon – rather than re-open -- the eastern half of Shotwell Hollow Road. But the request to abandon the road’s eastern half was challenged at that meeting by Kardos family representatives.

Dear owns Spring Hill Farm, which surrounds some of Shotwell Hollow Road’s non-maintained eastern half. He apparently wants to sell it as subdivided plots, which is complicated by the road’s presence. However, Kardos is challenging his abandonment request, at least in part because he wants the greater access to his own property, which is also near the non-maintained eastern portion of Shotwell Hollow Road.

Were the overgrown section of Shotwell Hollow Road cleared and revamped, it could again be used to give drivers a direct link between Bohannon and F.T. Valley roads (if a VDOT-approved intersection with Route 231 is used).

Shotwell Hollow Road’s connection to F.T. Valley Road in Etlan was blocked to prevent drivers using it following a fatal crash there that is believed to have occurred in the 1930s, Virginia Department of Transportation’s Ken Smith said at the supervisors’ Nov. 9 meeting.

“A much broader implication (of abandoning the road) is that old county roads are public rights of way,” Don Long, an attorney representing the Kardoses said at the October meeting. “That’s my right to go along that road, and yours and everyone’s. For future development purposes in the county I would suggest that you all should take a long and hard look at abandoning any road – how would you get through that area again? We all have the right to go through there right now, but if you abandon it and some future board needs to develop that area or put a road through there – you’d have to purchase it.”

Status of the road

The eastern half of Shotwell Hollow Road is currently not drivable, VDOT’s Smith said at the November meeting, because it has not been maintained and the passage to F.T. Valley Road is blocked off. Smith was unable to say who blocked off the road or when it occurred. Initially, he suggested that the road was closed in the 1930s, however this account was questioned by Joel Thomas Yowell, Kardos’ brother-in-law, who said at the November meeting that he had used the roadway as an alternate route during the Great Flood of 1995.

“I’m not sure that VDOT can tell you that VDOT closed that entrance — we don’t know how it was closed,” Smith said. “We don’t have any record – we do know that statewide we’ve had employees who were approached by a landowner and asked to put a gate across the road (and) even though that employee was not authorized to, grant it they did. Gates have been put across roads. I don’t know what happened here.”

Possible futures

While the supervisors have the authority to keep or abandon the road, Smith said that if the supervisors do not abandon the road VDOT will “discontinue” it. This process would allow VDOT to stop maintaining the road and give the financial burden to Madison County. A further complication is that VDOT theoretically has been maintaining this road but has not apparently done so. However, Smith said that they would repair the section of the road that comes to the western border of the Kardos property, which would extend the current maintained end of the road.

Smith suggested that an alternative would be for a road to be constructed to run from the eastern edge of Kardos’ property south, through a border between two subdivided plots of Dear’s property and connect to a different section of F.T. Valley Road. However, either the county, Dear or Kardos would have to build the addition to VDOT specifications before they would be willing to accept it as a public roadway.

The supervisors voted to postpone making a decision on the road until they have time to discuss the new information. If supervisors decide to move forward with abandoning the road they will have to have a public hearing, according to Smith.