Home > Gwinnett > Rick Badie / My Opinion > Archives > 2007 > September > 19
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
“Gwinnett’s true king of the roads”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jess and Renie Vics of Duluth traded the harsh cold of New York State for the milder winters of Georgia a decade ago.
Jess Vics, a retired eye doctor, had always wondered who Steve Reynolds was and why, exactly, a major boulevard carries his name.
He got his answer in Tuesday’s AJC Gwinnett News. It carried the story about the passing of Reynolds, 87, who had died the night before after a two-year battle with lung cancer. He’d been a former state senator and state Transportation Board chairman who presided over the improvement of Georgia’s roads and highways.
“Now I know,” said Vics, who was getting his car spiffed up at a car wash Wednesday near the intersection of Pleasant Hill Road and Steve Reynolds Boulevard.
The boulevard is a 4.6-mile road that was built in phases during the mid-1980s and late 1990s. About 35,000 vehicles travel it everyday, and I suspect that most of those motorists would do what several people did Wednesday when I asked them if they knew anything about the road’s name.
Shake their heads, sheepishly, and say, “no.”
Patrick Robinson’s excuse seemed plausible. He moved to Gwinnett a month ago to escape what he called crime-ridden Miami. I told him he may have jumped from the fire into the frying pan. He admitted to beginning to think the same. Robinson, 50, details cars at the Pleasant Hill Car Wash & Lube, where the Badie Tour came across Vics.
“Do you know who Steve Reynolds is?” I asked Robinson, motioning to the road.
“Nah, not really,” he said. “Hopefully you’re going to tell me.”
Well, you could call him “Transportation Czar,” and a special friend of Gwinnett’s.
Brian Allen, the director of the Gwinnett County Department of Transportation, credits Reynolds for much of the local road network, a system of more than 2,600 miles of asphalt and 615 signalized intersections, according to the county government Web site.
Early on, Reynolds recognized the value of building roads with local money raised from general obligation bonds, and later, the special local option sales tax. It helped the county pay for projects and move them along quicker.
“Most of the major roadways are examples of that [funding] principle,” Allen wrote in an e-mail. “It would be impossible to completely quantify [Reynolds’] contribution to our transportation infrastructure. Most of what we see in the way of major roadways, interstates, arterials and collector streets in the county are a testament to his career of service. He was diligent in his efforts to make sure that our area received its share of transportation funding, to the extent that many across the state say we have historically received more than our share.”
Usually, I think it’s unwise and premature to name a public facility or anything like it for someone still alive. Later on down the road they might pull an O.J. or something.
Then what?
In the case of Reynolds, though, there apparently was no gamble, no risk. On Dec. 15, 1987, the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners approved a resolution that renamed Red Plum Road, Franklin Road and part of Singleton Road as Steve Reynolds Boulevard.
“Obviously, he was worthy of the honor,” said Vics, the New York State transplant.
I gave Robinson, the newcomer, a pass for not knowing anything about Steve Reynolds Boulevard, or the humble Lawrenceville man that it honors. But not Tommy Brown, his 25-year-old co-worker. He’s home-grown, for goodness sakes, a 2000 graduate of Norcross High.
“I know the road and all that, but I didn’t know it’s history,” he told me.
“Now I know.”
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-39875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
Permalink | Comments (9) | Post your comment | Categories: Rick Badie
