During their regular Thursday morning meeting the Christian County Commission heard the first reading of a petition to close a segment of Holder Road to through traffic. Holder connects 14 to State Highway ZZ east of Clever and north of Boaz. The petition asks the county to vacate a portion of the road. It says changes would be made by property owners to allow only residents access.
The petition was submitted with 41 signatures. The commission said 23 had been verified by the County Clerk. Only 12 signatures were required.
In their petition the residents say overtime the county has paved the road and made it more favorable to vehicle traffic. They say an increase in traffic has made the road unsafe and a hazard, and they argue there are other better alternative routes.
There was no official public comment period scheduled for Thursday, but with extra time on hand Presiding Commissioner Lynn Morris took two comments. The first asked Commissioner Morris to address accusations from residents on Holder Road that when campaigning for office he had told them he would eliminate traffic, this prompted a strong rebuke from the commissioner, who said this has been an ongoing issue.
“I thought that we had come up with a solution,” Morris said. He explained that the county was “trying to find money to widen the road and put an area that you could walk on both sides." He said when sharing the idea he had “neighbors out on Holder Road that cussed” him and told the Commissioner “that was the stupidest f-ing thing that you could do.”
Some Christian County residents, many of them residents of Boaz, have formed a Facebook group opposing the closure, with plans to circulate a counter petition.
The public will get a chance to speak on the matter during a hearing scheduled for July 10, in the old courtroom in the Christian County Commission Offices, 100 West Church Street in Ozark.
Find the full petition with Commission documents for their April 3, 2025, meeting online.