On Monday, several residents expressed serious concerns about the poor condition of Happy Top Road to the Cumberland County Commission.

Dwayne Lovejoy highlighted the road’s severe deterioration, noting it has not been resurfaced since 1993 and is riddled with unpatchable potholes.

“I want to raise some awareness about Happy Top Road and the condition it’s in,” he said. “There’s been no improvement, the road’s in the worst shape I’ve ever seen it. Dating back to 1993, it has never been resurfaced. The potholes are so bad that you can’t even try to patch it. There’s no structure there to hold it.”

David Huber emphasized the road’s narrowness, making it unsafe for two cars to pass without pulling over.

“I can’t explain to you how desperate it is, he said. “You cannot pass another car safely, without pulling off onto the side of the road.”

Harriott Palmer reported illegal dumping along the road, including concrete, rocks, tires, toilets, and other debris, which has worsened this spring.

“As you go down Happy Top Road toward the mountains, before the first mile, somebody’s been dumping concrete, rocks, and everything on the sides of the road,” she said. “If you go all the way to the other side where it connects to Old 127, we’ve got dump trucks full of tires. A contractor looks like he cleaned out a rental property, there’s toilets, there’s diapers, people’s possessions, and I’ve documented it all. And this has all happened this spring, it wasn’t there last year.”

County Commissioner Joe Sherill acknowledged the issues and mentioned plans to assess the road and work toward solutions, indicating some progress on addressing the conditions.

“We had a road subcommittee that came out of the environmental committee that has been working towards some helpful solutions to try and improve road conditions,” he said. “We’re actually going to come out and drive toward your place tomorrow just to try and get an idea and follow up on it.”