Evelyn Auger

To the editor,

Sanbornton has been in the papers at great length about their roads. Here are some of my thoughts on the issue.

In the Winnisquam Echo, 3-20-08, “an engineer” responding to the idea of grinding up the tarred roads and re-topping them with the grindings rather than repaving them (far less costly), said that they would be a “disaster” during mud season. Mud season isn’t pleasant but it only lasts a few weeks. The frost heaves on the paved roads last longer and in many ways are more damaging. They also tend to be mainly on paved roads. My dirt road is over 200 years old and hasn’t changed a great deal. But it is certainly much cheaper to maintain. Some gravel in the spring mud holes and grading a few times per year (I’m not addressing winter plowing which is basically the same on all roads except dirt roads do not use salt in winter). You can’t correct a major frost heave with a load of gravel. My dirt road doesn’t have gigantic frost heaves. It doesn’t have to be re-topped every few years, ground up and totally resurfaced every few years because of the cracking and breaking up as the frost comes out on paved roads, nor does it have expensive salt on it in the winter. It is far cheaper and much more environmentally friendly. A dirt road topped with grindings would even be one step up from my old fashioned one. Engineers are paid to design and create or in this case re-create the roads providing elaborate plans and a costly price tag. It was not an engineer that built my road or many of the dirt roads around this town. They were done by men using simple common sense and they have survived for 200 plus years.

The second comment was in an article in The Laconia Daily Sun, 3-22-08. It noted that the Capital Improvement Program Committee noted that Sanbornton has a ‘significant amount of dirt roads’. They should also note that it’s a good thing that we do. If all the dirt roads in this town were paved, our salt bill in winter would be sky high and the paving and repaving bills would be astronomical. Dirt roads, when properly maintained, are rural heaven that’s why Sanbornton has designated some of them as ‘Scenic Roads’. I understand the need that some roads must be paved but engineers and some of our board members should not lose sight of the fact that dirt roads get you where you are going just as do paved ones.

There is one issue of dirt roads that I have not addressed . They can be washed out by excessive drainage. Good care and cleaning of ditches, faithful cleaning of culverts reduces that damage to a point where it could be no greater than the erosion that occurs around or under paved roads.

If the amounts of money that are being tossed around are spent on the roads in Sanbornton how will many of us afford our taxes? The town will have some superhighways but those of us who have lived here for years, paid taxes here for years and used Sanbornton’s roads all these years won’t be able to live here to use them. When I hear the word ‘bond” for our roads I want to cry. I will not live long enough to see bonds of the magnitude they are talking about paid off, which means I am passing on a debt to my children and grandchildren.

I’ve driven these roads over 68 years and will agree that the winter maintenance (another whole issue) and frost heaves this year were the worst I have ever seen. But to jump into a crippling budget because of it is like saying you must buy a new car because your windshield wiper doesn’t work. Since the first road was created in Sanbornton until today Sanbornton has improved her roads year-by-year but has done so within her budget. Those improvements may not compare to towns who have 30 miles of road and industries that pay high taxes, nor to cities who have whole long main streets filled with business to help carry the tax burden. We’re a town with a population of less than three thousand, who places the costs almost entirely on the back of homeowners, so we have done well by our 90-miles of roads. Do we have to improve them? Yes. Should the state improve their sections of road within our borders? Yes! Do we need to build superhighways in our small town? No! A road needs to be wide enough to allow passage, smooth enough to travel, ditched and culverted to allow flow of water, and done safely in all these aspects. Where is the mandate that it must be paved to do so? Why do we think it must allow us to drive 50 to 60 miles per hour on a country road?

Be careful what you ask for folks! You just might get it. You’ll also get a tax bill that could put you in the poor house and put some rich city feller into the old homestead with plans to repeal the scenic road designations and pave your scenic roads. There are two ways to look at the words “Sanbornton ain’t what it used to be!” The first way is that we have come forward a long way over the years, which I know to be true. The second is that we have lost our country conservatism and willingness to live within our budget, which could come true if we aren’t careful. Frankly the second one scares me.

Evelyn Auger

Sanbornton