Work to upgrade some of our main dirt roads is underway. From what we were told in public meetings, by both County representatives and members of the company who have been hired to do the work, School Road, Church Road and Frances Jones Boulevard will have several inches of rock put down as a new riding surface once the underlying dirt base has been sufficiently prepared. The original estimated time for completion was the end of October, although the contractor allowed that there were several factors that could drag the process out longer. At this point, we simply see that work is in progress.
The topic of our dirt roads is a sensitive one, for several reasons. Historically, the County has held no ownership or legally clarified dominion over the roads, even though they have maintained them for as long as anyone can remember. Our canopied roads are beautiful, greatly adding to the aesthetic of experiencing Daufuskie. And our road surfaces can be rendered nearly impassible either when it hasn’t rained for a while and the sugar-sand parts of the road loses cohesion, or when it rains too much and the mud and standing water overwhelm smaller vehicles. Everyone has an opinion about what should be done, and some of those opinions are rather passionately held. Therefore, trust in what the County is going to do is critical.
The County has declared that they will not pave these roads, which was an important statement. The placement of rock, as they are in the process of doing, is a standard part of constructing a paved road, so even if they say that they will not pave the road, what they are doing now would make it considerably easier for them to do just that if they change their minds. The County is asking us to trust them on this and, since the work is underway, we really don’t have much choice. So we will watch, and see how this goes, to determine whether or not our trust was misplaced. However, there are other road issues currently being addressed with significantly less clarity. There are ongoing discussions regarding Prospect Road, and there appears to be some amount of County-orchestrated work being done on Beach Road, and the statements from various County officials have seemingly lacked the consistency of the messaging that we had with road resurfacing effort. Confusion is not a good way to build trust.
The Biblical model for building trust is as simple as it gets – let your yes be yes, and your no be no. Do what you say you will do, and don’t do what you say you will not do. Follow this model long enough, and people will see that it is part of your character to keep your word. This also requires saying what you will and won’t do beforehand, which implies straightforward communication. It does not require that we always like what you say you will or won’t do, but we can handle our dislike much better if we trust you to keep your word. Even better if we know that you heard and considered our concerns as part of the decision-making process.
So we watch and wait, knowing that how the issues with these different road scenarios are handled today will determine if we trust our local government with their statements and projects tomorrow. I pray that they demonstrate themselves worthy of our trust.
Peace and blessings – Pastor Aaron