Too much traffic at too high a speed? Malcolm Boulevard in Rutherford College

As anyone who has ever walked along it can testify, Malcolm Boulevard, which runs straight through the middle of Rutherford College, is a mighty busy highway.

The road serves as a corridor from southern Caldwell County to Interstate 40 and it is especially jammed during the morning and late afternoon commutes.

Mainly because there is no municipal police department in the small town, many of the vehicles that move up and down Malcolm Boulevard are also violating the posted speed limit of 35 mph.

“We need to slow that traffic down,” said Town Manager Jessica Bargsley. “It really has become a dangerous situation.”

Bargsley told the town council at its regular monthly meeting on March 6 that she has reached out to the North Carolina Department of Transportation about the highway and the need for a couple of more stop lights along it, but said Raleigh has been slow to respond.

That led her to contact Rep. Hugh Blackwell to ask for help.

Bargsley said she is hopeful Blackwell will be able to make the bureaucratic wheels turn faster in the DOT.

“We really need two stop lights,” she said. “One at Malcolm and Honeycutt and a second at Malcolm and Brevard.”

A light is especially needed at the Honeycutt intersection, she said, because Christ Classical Academy, a private school which took over the old Rutherford College Elementary campus, provides no bus service and thus all of its students are dropped off and picked up as car riders.

“It gets really crowded down there,” she said. “And I’m afraid it’s also really dangerous.”

In other business at the March 6 meeting, the council heard a report from Planning Board Chairman Carroll Hoyle.

Hoyle said the board is progressing in advancing its three priorities: marketing, recreation, and networking.

Enhancing and promoting events in the town is part of that effort, he said, as is the building of restrooms at the Greenway Park. 

The town also scheduled public hearings for its April 3 meeting to consider the annexation of the Castle Bridge Marina into the town limits and also the assigning of a zoning designation if that annexation is approved.

The board also discussed the installation of two Flock Safety Cameras, one near the north end of Malcolm Boulevard and the other near the Bojangles adjacent to Interstate 40.

The cameras are equipped to notify local law enforcement when a vehicle with a license plate that is being sought is spotted.

Bill Poteat is editor of The Paper. He may be reached at 828-445-8595, ext. 2004, or at bill@thepaper.media.