Thrasher Road Improved

The long-awaited resurfacing of Thrasher Road has been completed and is now open to motorists.

Thrasher Road, off U.S. 19 in northwest Hernando County, was a top priority because it was the most heavily traveled of the area's limerock roads.

Work crews applied two coats of chip sealing on Thrasher and a coating will be applied in a week or two to preserve the seal.

A "chip sealant" is a limerock-prepared base topped with two layers of asphalt and rock. The surface treatment is about 40 percent cheaper than normal road paving. The county used it earlier on Star Road, off U.S. 19.

Several residents who live along Thrasher had petitioned the county for improvements.

As part of its capital improvement program, the county allocated $390,000 per year for the next five years for dust control of limerock roads.

Hernando County has about 500 miles of limerock roadways and residents who live on many of them have raised repeated concerns about the dust.

The county has also completed work on the following roads:

• The intersection of Elgin and Landover Boulevard has been resurfaced. There had been complaints of the hump at that site.

• The intersection of Elgin and Coronado Drive has been resurfaced.

• A sidewalk has been poured on the south side of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, between Main Street and Twigg Street in Brooksville.

Meanwhile, county commissioners at their Metropolitan Planning Organization meeting today will review a proposed Public Involvement Process and Long Range Transportation Plan.

The Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority (TBARTA) is developing a master plan of transportation improvements for counties on the west coast of Florida - from Citrus to Sarasota counties - as required by state law.

The MPO meeting begins at 1:30 p.m. in the John Law Ayers county commission chambers, at the Hernando County Government Center, 20 North Main St. in downtown Brooksville.

For more information, call 754-4057.