Traffic from Fayetteville testing site angers residents blocked in their neighborhood

Brooklyn Caulk lives on the 5100 block of Meadowbrook Road, a cul-de-sac off Hope Mills Road has that has about 18 homes on it.

"This is a residential community. This is not a commercial area," Caulk said.

Renew Counseling Center, located on the corner near the cul-de-sac, recently started offering COVID-19 testing in December.

"We have 11mental health therapist ranging from marriage counseling, children play therapy, substance abuse and different areas of mental health services," said Norma Negron-Bynum, CEO of Renew Counseling Center.

Caulk said she's not against the counseling center's efforts, but lately, there has been more traffic than normal.

"When the method was, 'Hey, pull up, park, we'll come out to you and you go on your way.' There was no back up; there was no traffic," she said.

But ever since the company started offering no appointment drive-thru testing, Caulk said the line of cars has stretched up and down the block, making it difficult for residents to get in and out of their homes.

"When the drive-thru testing gets at it's peak, the cars have no option but to drive all the way down to the end of the cul-de-sac, do a loop around and go park and wait in line," Caulk said.

Negron-Bynum said she's aware of the problem. During peak operations, the testing site was seeing around 200 cars each day.

She said she's making some changes that will hopefully cut the number of people who are having to wait at the testing site in half.

"We've been trying to help the community because of the pandemic and the crisis that we're in, in getting people back to work," Negron-Bynum said. "We're going to appointment only to try to limit that to one hundred [a day]."

While the WRAL News cameras was rolling on Tuesday, there was a noticeably lower number of vehicles than normal at the testing site.

Negron-Bynum plans to hire off-duty Fayetteville police officers to help with traffic control.