ROCK HILL, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Hughes Chiropractic Clinics have been on White Street in Rock Hill since 1953.   

Dr. Douglas Hughes told Queen City News the street where his business sits is in need of serious repairs, saying the long, main road into the city has bad potholes and cracks in the foundation. 

He attended the last Pennies for Progress meeting of the year to advocate once again for the street he’s practiced on for decades. 

“We’re drawing people from all over, but we have a high school that’s just about a mile or two away and they come into town on White Street,” Hughes said. “The road is very narrow. It’s dangerous. They don’t fix the potholes like they need to. They repaved a lot of roads twice since they paved White Street. And I just think it’s time to give White Street the attention that it needs.” 

It’s the main reason Hughes went to the Pennies for Progress input meeting — the county’s last one held in 2023. 

Pennies for Progress is a 1 percent sales tax York County puts solely towards transportation projects. Hughes and other Rock Hill neighbors listened to road projects city officials presented before requesting upgrades and repairs of their own. 

“White Street has been a main corridor into the community ever since the Civil War,” Allan Miller said. “We’ve even had some areas where the road has collapsed, where they’ve had to come in and repair it because the infrastructure is bad for a road that’s supposed to be. The corridor into the downtown area is supposed to be a gateway into our city. It needs to be improved.” 

City leaders added the road to the list of projects, now neighbors are hoping the Pennies for Progress team will add it to the final list.  

Patrick Hamilton, the county’s assistant for transportation, says the meetings this year have been successful. He’s seen up to 50 people show up to their city-specific meetings with requests.  

“Highway 21 in Fort Mill between Sutton Road and Springfield Parkway; Sutton Road and 160 has been a big one in Fort Mill, along with the Fort Mill Parkway, going up to Holbrook Road is going to the big one to be widened to five lanes up in that area,” he described. “As far as York and Clover on the western side, a lot of intersection improvements on that part of the county.” 

York County residents will get to vote on the finalized list of projects on Nov. 5, 2024.