Abandonment Process Of The Road Over Healy’s Millpond Dam

The Middlesex County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 on Tuesday, Oct. 3 to begin the abandonment process of the road over Healy’s Millpond dam and to conduct a public hearing on the matter at the board’s November regular monthly meeting. Southside Sentinel reports during a town hall-style meeting Monday at the Middlesex County Historic Courthouse in Saluda, a glimmer of hope arose that a 17-year “dam mistake” can once and for all be resolved. The portion of Stormont Road (Route 629) over Healy’s Millpond dam was closed in 2006 when the box culvert to the dam failed a six-month Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) inspection. VDOT officials said then VDOT was responsible for the road but not the dam beneath it and until that was fixed, the road would remain closed. Now 17 years later, the road is still closed and the spillway on the dam has not been fixed.