County Road resident Jackie Shane doesn’t know what’s worse; the damage rainwater does to the Windham road she lives on, or the legal red tape she says keeps the town from repairing it.
The dirt road that runs up a hill near the Pope Road has been problematic for years, residents say. Town Manager Tony Plante said the town can’t maintain it because it’s a private road.
“There’s nothing private about it,” Shane said.
The problem started 30 years ago when a landowner built his own private road as a continuation of the town’s County Road, according to Community Development Director Roger Timmons.
That section of land was chopped up into 10 smaller plots, said Shane who now owns one of them. The cracked and gouged dirt road she and her neighbors live on is still considered a private road by the town.
Shane’s brother Michael Sanphy Jr., who owned her house before she bought it from him three years ago, said the town offered to consider de-privatizing County Road in 2000, but with several conditions.
To be accepted by the town as a public road, neighbors would have had to clear 50 feet from treeline to treeline on either side of the 22-foot-wide road.
Sanphy said he graded the road, which involved spreading gravel and flattening everything out. Residents were also required to come together to raise money for the project, which also included installing metal drainage tunnels and shields to keep the road together.
Sanphy said when they tried pulling the road together in 2000 that all of the residents agreed to help pay for the project, but some later refused when he tried collect.
County Road resident David Cunningham said he got an estimate from Plante that the project would cost $30,000 and the town wouldn’t guarantee that it would accept it. Plante said he does not recall saying this and does not believe the town has the means to calculate an estimate for the project.
This summer the Postal Service stopped delivering mail to County Road because of the poor road conditions. Residents say the ban lasted until Cunningham graded the road with his tractor.
Cunningham, who works long hours, including nights, currently grades the road several times a year. Cunningham will move dirt and gravel to the top of the hill, but said it doesn’t take a lot of rain to float it all down to the bottom again.
The town’s public works crews do plow snow off the road in the wintertime, even though they are not required to.
“I think the town is saying they don’t want to maintain it because it’s a difficult stretch of road,” said resident Lisa Hodge.
“We can’t physically do anything on these roads, legally,” Plante said. “We’re not allowed to, except for winter maintenance.” He added that there is an exception in an emergency condition.
In 1998, there was a murder-suicide in one of the houses near the top of County Road. Plante said town employees graded the road in that instance because of the traffic created by police investigators and news crews.
“We pay taxes,” said resident Angle Tripp. “If something was to happen to my son, I’d want an ambulance to be able to come here.”
“When I go to sell my home, what do I tell the next people?” said Shane.
“Times change, people change. Just grade the road. That’s all, I’m not looking for a lot,” said Shane.
CountyRoad2, CountyRoad3, CountyRoad4: Windham resident Jackie Shane and her son Jake stand on County Road that the town refuses to maintain. The dark patches show where some of the gouges occur during rainfall.
CountyRoad2, CountyRoad3, CountyRoad4: Windham resident Jackie Shane and her son Jake stand on County Road that the town refuses to maintain. The dark patches show where some of the gouges occur during rainfall.
CountyRoad2, CountyRoad3, CountyRoad4: Windham resident Jackie Shane and her son Jake stand on County Road that the town refuses to maintain. The dark patches show where some of the gouges occur during rainfall.
CountyRoad5: County Road resident Jackie Shane and her son Jake hold a copy of the note the Postal Service left in her mailbox announcing they would no longer deliver mail because of the poor quality of the road.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
