Private Road Plow Requests Vex Denham

Although the meeting was for departmental fiscal year 2016 budget review, everyone at the Mattapoisett Finance Committee meeting on February 4 felt Highway Superintendent Barry Denham’s pain.

Fresh from many days of plowing and managing the snow removal activities of the Highway Department, Denham shared some of the backlash he has received. Specifically, he said the problem was with private roads that are not part of the Town’s private road maintenance program.

Of the approximately 60 miles of roadway in Mattapoisett, 16 miles fall into the category of private.

Town Administrator Michael Gagne said that in order for the Town to provide snow plowing and grading services to private roads, those roads must meet certain criteria established by both town bylaws and state regulations.

Many private roads in town do meet the requirements, and the residents living on those roads have submitted the necessary documents that allow the Highway Department to perform maintenance work; however, the scope of that work is limited.

“Private roads are driving us absolutely bonkers,” said Denham.

Denham’s office had received numerous calls and some emails from residents whose roads are not included in the program but who still demand that plowing be done. Several of those who have complained about lack of attention have insisted that they need the Town to plow for safety reasons.

Denham said in situations when the Police or Fire Department is dispatched to a residence on a private road that has not been plowed, the Highway Department is also dispatched to clear the road for the emergency vehicles. He said that many private roads are really nothing more than long private driveways with a single home at the end, clearly making it unacceptable to the private road maintenance program.

The program requires that the road have at least three people living on it and that the road remains open to the residents of the community, not just those residents living on the private way. A qualified private road also requires that the majority of the residents living on the road agree to the terms and conditions set by the Town, and the road must meet certain dimensions for accessibility by town vehicles.

Finance Committee member Pat Donoghue said that in several private beach areas – areas where the Town is providing road maintenance services – large signs declaring the area to be private seem to conflict with the rule that the road remain open to the public. Gagne said he would look into where those signs are located and find out what can be done about removing them.

“We simply don’t have the manpower or money,” Denham stated regarding the limitations of providing service to private roads. “They are relentless,” he said of private road residents demanding the service.

Denham said that of the $70,000 snow removal budget the Highway Department started with at the beginning of the season, only about $10,000 remains. Gagne and Denham both commented that snow removal was the one budgetary line item that may exceed its denoted figure.

In other matters, Chief Assessor Kathleen Costello, during her Assessor’s Office report, noted that the new GIS mapping system (geographical information system) has been useful to her office as well as other departments at Town Hall.

Used for mapping all the buildings in town among other things, it will also be used by the animal control officer, Highway and Sewer Departments, and harbormaster, thus making it an integral resource tool for diverse areas of responsibility.

Implementation of the GIS system will also allow residents to view maps on the Town’s website, including FEMA map overlays.

Costello applauded the work done by Highway Department employee Nick Nelson whose computer skills have aided in implementing the GIS program.

Earlier in the evening, Gagne praised the work done by Brenda Herbeck, treasurer/collector, in assisting the Town in tax title property sales garnering $300,000 in land sales. He said there would be another sale before the end of 2015, which he believes will have a value of approximately $150,000. Those funds will be earmarked for extensive roadwork that is being planned.

All departments meeting with FinCom on this night presented level-funded budgets, except where necessary to meet retirement packages or health care coverage.

Those budgets were: tax collector – $190,000; town accountant – $137,000; Highway Department $540,000; assessors – $154,700; Building Department/Inspectional Services and Zoning Board of Appeals – $207,000.

The next meeting of the Mattapoisett Finance Committee is scheduled for February 11 at 6:30 pm in the town administrator’s office.

By Marilou Newell

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