Road Sub-Committee Report
March 2001

As was stated in the “Road Sub-Committee Charter”:

The road system will be maintained, improved, and snow plowed on a priority basis due to the limited budget currently available for this purpose. The first priority will be the 36.9 miles of primary roads.

To this end, $72,511.49 of the $79,250.00 budgeted for road surfacing in 2001 has been expended surfacing 5.3 miles of primary roads. The remaining $6,738.51 is being held until the end of spring for surfacing of the most critical primary road problems that exist at that time. The cost of surfacing has been averaging about $14,000.00 per mile, so this $6,738.51 represents about ½ mile of road surfacing activity. Additional funds, in the $10,000 to $20,000 range, may be available within this year’s budget to increase the potential road surfacing mileage to 2 miles.

$22,000 is also in the budget for road maintenance; the repair of yearly road damage caused by snow and rain erosion and traffic. Historically, $60,000 per year has been budgeted for this purpose. The budget for road maintenance has been reduced in order to expend more resources on road surfacing. This reduced road maintenance budget will also need to be focused on the primary roads.

In response to the last Road Sub-Committee Report, many property owners reported sections of roads in need of surfacing. These reported issues break down into 10,000 feet of primary roads ($25,000), 12,000 feet of secondary roads ($30,000), and 7,300 feet of cul-de-sacs ($25,550). In addition to these reports, the Road Sub-Committee has identified 42,000 feet ($105,000) of primary roads in need of surfacing. The total cost, if all of these projects were undertaken, would be about $185,550. Obviously, the $6,738.51 remaining in the road surfacing budget, coupled with a potential $20,000 is not going to resolve all of these issues.

The Road Sub-Committee has brought this issue to the attention of the Budget Committee and discussed this problem at a Common Area Committee meeting. Unfortunately, lacking the necessary funds, very little can be done to resolve all of these issues. Two conclusions were reached at these meetings. 1.) The priority system mentioned above was established in recognition of this on-going problem and should be adhered to. 2.) The “Road Sub-Committee Charter”, sub-section entitled “Property Owner Responsibilities” needs to be reiterated:

All individuals using these private roads must be aware of and abide by the following in order to maximize the safety and minimize the expense of road maintenance:

Also discussed was the issue of road quality expectations of the property owners ranging from ox-cart trails to paved highways. The Road Sub-Committee consensus is that the current budget for road surfacing can only be expected to produce the current quality of the surfaced primary roads over the next six years, with no improvement and a slow deterioration of the remaining roads. Until the SFTR POA alters its budget and/or policy for road maintenance, this committee sees no options other than to pursue the currently established policy.

There are, of course other options:

  1. Increase the current road surfacing budget to $200,000 per year and return the road maintenance budget to $60,000 per year. This equates to a dues increase of about $350 per lot per year. This would allow the regular surfacing of all roads on a six-year cycle at the current surfacing quality and cost per mile and regular yearly maintenance of all roads.
  2. Reduce property owner road quality expectations to the level that can be maintained within the current budget as described above.
  3. Establish a special assessment for road improvement of $1,000,000 to surface all of the roads. This equates to a special assessment of $2,225 per lot, which would allow the surfacing of all of the roads over the next year. The yearly road maintenance costs would need to be maintained at about $60,000 per year and the road surfacing costs of $200,000 per year would need to be established about six years later.
  4. Pursue some other funding source that will result in the acquisition of additional funds.

Other suggestions include requesting that the county assume the ownership of the roads or allowing property owners to pursue improvements and maintenance of specific portions of roads. Nether of these options are considered viable. The roads on the S.F.T.R. are not up to county standards and the county is unlikely to be interested in upgrading them at county expense. Individual property owners upgrading specific portions of roads would lead to an un-maintainable and non-uniform road system of everything from ox-cart trails to paved highways.

The Road Sub-Committee welcomes and encourages all property owners to provide input on this matter.