The Road Committee

Yep. It's me again!

Our association is responsible for road maintenance. We are behind and winter is closing in.

Years of dysfunction have plagued this association and the Road Committee fell to the wayside. One resident drives the grader. It's an old grader, it isn't easy to operate, but it does the job. No other volunteers have stepped forward to drive the grader, but many come out and direct, throw rocks and brainstorm.

Every resident has an opinion. "Sell the grader". "Crown the roads". "Put a cut here." "These trees need to go." "Out source the road work."
And every time we ask "Do you know what our annual budget is?" they look at us like we have two heads!

If we outsource, we'd be out of money in 3 years! If the trees are hazardous and they are in the easement, call a friend and drag out your chainsaws! If we sell the grader and outsource, we'll make it an extra year before hitting $ZERO at the bottom line! If we spend on out-sourcing there will be no gravel laid down. Out sourcing + gravel will bring us to ZERO faster!! Much faster!!!

It's time to put the committee back together. The V.P. heads the Road Committee.

I don't know squat about graders, crowning or cuts. These issues need to be in capable hands and the V.P. is (in my humble opinion) the 'go to' guy.

Does the board rely on the V.P. to lead, find volunteers and collect proposals to bring before the board for review?

What is the role of the board where a committee is involved and visa versa?

Thanks again!
Tammy

In my opinion, the board should hire an engineer to evaluate the road and offer several options from repairs to paving.

The board should obtain quotes for all the options so they truly know the cost.

The board should also do a list of pros and cons for each option, including how they would pay for each item (increased assessments over time, special assessment, etc.).

Once this is done, in my opinion, a meeting of the general membership should be held so the options can be presented and take a vote on how to proceed. In reality, this info could be sent to each member ahead of time so they can review the material at home and you don't take a lot of time educating. If possible, have the engineer on hand at the meeting to answer questions.

When we repaved our roads, our best friend was the head of public works for our township. No ax to grind. Incredibly generous with his time.

Brought in a loaded dump truck and participated in the flex testing (walking behind the fully loaded truck to assess which portions of the roadway flex the most)

Snaked our sewer lines using a camera so that we could make subsurface repairs before we did any resurfacing.

Made a phone call when we weren't getting cooperation from the water utility company.

We vetted half a dozen contractors, but in the end, we went with the contractor who did the backup work for the township. Good choice because (1) contractor had additional incentive to please us, and (2) fewer homeowners saying they knew better.

We did hire an engineer, but we were dissatisfied with the level of support. We didn't use them past preparing the drawings we needed.

Best decision we made was to spend some quality time with the person who is responsible for maintaining the local public streets.

In your situation, you might even get a recommendation from such a person on what to do about your old equipment.

Just keep doing this and leave the man alone.

As long as he is grading the road, you have the perfect situation. He should train the next person, or backup person though.