ANDERSON COUNTY — While residents along Lewis Drive see a possible road closure as a threat to their safety, representatives of the railroad involved in it say the action will make the road safer.

Local residents, however, hope that Anderson County Council members will answer their questions before approving the proposal. The issue may come up as soon as the Sept. 16 meeting.

Plans by Greenville and Western Railway Co. to close a crossing on Lewis Drive have caused uproar in the Cheddar community in northern Anderson COunty. At a recent public meeting, and again at the Tuesday council meeting, residents voiced their concerns.

At issue, they said, is a nearby ethanol distribution and blending facility and how residents would evacuate the single-entrance road in case of an emergency.

“By closing the road you basically trap the residents if an accident occurs on either end of Sherrard Road,” Steven Chapman, a Lewis Drive resident, said at the council meeting. “We don’t know what to do or where to go if there is an ethanol spill, a train derailment or other industrial accident.”

Broken and rotted railroad ties, along with the hazards of ethanol, he said, added to the resident’s fears. Citing Material Safety Data Sheets, Chapman said in some cases water may not be effective against ethanol fires.

“It’s a relatively new risk to fire fighters,” he said.

But Amy Plummer, the economic development and real estate agent for Greenville and Western Railway, said the closure is good for those in the community. Plummer does not work for the county, as has been implied by some, she said.

Plummer said the closure would make the area safer for the residents. Closing the railroad crossing would close the road, but would also eliminate the possibility of train versus car accidents. And the closure would prevent large trucks from using the road as a through street, she said.

“We’re not trying to close a road and make their life miserable. We really do have their safety in mind,” she said. “Automobiles do not win in accidents against trains.”

In addition, the ethanol facility here lowers the cost of gas in the area by as much as 27 cents per gallon, she said. The road closure is necessary for the increase in traffic on the railroad track, she said.

More than $4 million in funding has already been secured to fix the railroad tracks, Plummer said.

And the issue of safety at the ethanol facility was something already covered by South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Controls, as well as the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Plummer said.

Councilman Larry Greer said he thought the closure would be good for the community.

“We had a death in my wife’s family this past week … and we were on a road that was dead-ended on a cul-de-sac,” he said. “You couldn’t have asked for a more pleasant place.”

He was not, as of Wednesday afternoon, he said, convinced that the negatives of the situation outweighed the positives.

“So far, all I’ve heard is a community that doesn’t want an ethanol facility in their backyard,” he said. “I understand their concerns. But they already live by a petroleum tank farm. What I heard last night was that they were all for them bringing jobs and money into the county, just not near them.”

While Lewis Drive resident Helen Sparks agreed that there are tanker trucks that go up and down the road and that it would prevent some of that traffic, after 22 years on the road, she’s not concerned about the road closing.

“It wouldn’t bother me,” she said. “I can go either way (on the road) to get to work.”

Resident Linda Powell said she was concerned with how long it would take the Cheddar Fire Department to respond to residents on her end of the road if the road was closed.

“I would think it would cause them not to be able to get here as quickly,” she said. “They never come in from the other end of the road.”

But Amos Hostetler, who lives on Lewis Drive also, worries not only about the effect of the road closure on his health, but on his property value.

Hostetler has breathing problems and is on oxygen. He relies on emergency medical services, he said.

“I’ve had to call EMS and they would be down here a couple of times,” he said. “It’d take twice the time for them to get here.”

But he also predicts that the road closure and ethanol facility would lower the value of his property.

“(The property value has) probably doubled since I bought here six years ago,” he said. “I came down here so my daughter could go to Palmetto. That’s a good school and that’s raised the value of the property around here. … If if they block the road off, it could throw off the districting and … that would lower the property value too.”

Councilman Bill McAbee said the issue could come before council as soon as the Sept. 16 meeting.

The council will have to vote on whether or not to abandon the road crossing. Once they abandon it, that section of the road will be turned over to the railroad, and it will no longer be available for public access, Plummer said.