Section 31 Roads - Heber Overgaard AZ

On Saturday, 9/1, Ralph & Lucile Love and I met with KIB Backhoe and Grading (Hubert & JD Kimbrell who have a home on Gilbert). A special thanks to Ralph and Lucile who drove up from the valley just to attend! On Tuesday, 9/4, Steve Roth and I met with JR Peterson, a local construction company that does road work. At both meetings we traveled Canyon Ridge, Ponderosa, Lone Mountain, High Ridge, Judy Ranch, McMurray (approx 600 feet), Gilbert (both 'sides'), Hooks Way and Badger Lane. Both KIB and Peterson said that proper drainage was the key to 're-establishing' the roads and making periodic maintenance easier and less expensive. This was their recommendation before adding any more materials (which would be washed away). Here's a summary:

We looked at repairing/creating drainage ditches along all of these roads. Materials from the ditches would be brought back up on the roads and a final grading done. While this will establish proper drainage for most of the roadways there will still be some problem areas for longer term work. These include private drives with blocked or inadequate culverts, some that need culverts, washes, several areas where water crosses the road following it's natural drainage path - areas that will require culverts at some point and narrow parts of the road where trees need to be removed to provide adequate width for both road and drainage ditches.

-Quoted a flat fee of $10,000 to perform the work on drainage ditches and grading of all of the above mentioned roads including a 'V' at all private entry roads to carry water across the entry road and continue in the ditch and 'sculpting 'V's' or paths at road intersections for drainage. They would work around existing culverts at private entry roads.

-KIB felt this would go a long way in re-establishing the roads to a more easily maintainable condition and future years budgets could go towards culverts,..... and other improvements. KIB said that as community members they are performing the work at cost.

-Estimated 30 hours @ $95/hr for drainage ditches and road grading of all the above mentioned roads. We didn't talk about the 'V' for private drives and I would estimate an additional 15 hours for that work. That would bring his estimate to $4275.00.

-Possible additional costs.... If the roads were 'bone' dry and required water, water truck @ $90/hr, plus water @ $75/load; total of 6-8 loads. Six loads and six hours would total $930.00.

-Maintenance grading of roads (Once the roads were graded and drainage ditch work complete per above), recommended 4 times a year at 20 hours, $95/hr, $1900 per grading, $7600 per year.

-Culverts. Doing 5 culverts at a time for cost efficiency, based on a 24" diameter culvert, 20 feet long, materials and equipment, the average cost would be $900, $4500 total. This is an average figure and multiple culverts may be needed at major wash crossings or road junctions, longer and/or larger diameter culverts may be needed, individual private drive would be a little less,....

We currently have $15200.00 in the road fund. Our current task is to decide what direction to take for immediate road improvement and in the near future develop a multi-year budget/work plan to include with the next letter that goes out. The 'Next Step Committee' is hard at work gathering and organizing property information per the last meeting. We will need funding for that mailing and keep an emergency reserve in the fund. While we may get a few more contributions we won't be able to ask for more until well into next year. We can ask for those favoring a maintenance district, who haven't contributed, to contribute as it will take a year for the Maint. Dist. process to unfold. But for decision purposes, let's look at the current fund of $15,200.

My recommendation... After traveling the roads with both KIB and Peterson and getting their input, I think that KIB has a better understanding and 'feel' for what needs to be done. Being home/property owners in Sec 31 they also have a vested interest in our roads. I think that the Peterson estimate of 30 hours for the initial work is a little 'light' and will probably require more time/$ to do the job right.

Jim Weeldryer gave an enlightening presentation on Victory Heights process and experience in forming a Road Maintenance District. He answered a lot of questions, cleared up some 'gray' areas, discussed their favorable experience in working with county personnel and the support provided by them, explained how the property owners Advisory Committee (with property owner input) control the agenda and costs (for instance, their MD's sole purpose is to maintain and improve the existing roads in their current location - might be a key point for us), explained the distribution of costs by basing them on assessed property valuation and many more informational points as well as the work required throughout the process ('heavy lifting' in Jim's terms).

Bob Miller (Quad Bob) has set up a web site for us, www.section31roads.com. It will be our focal point for posting information and exchanging ideas. Bob has done a great job on the site and it even has a blog for posting. The documents from Jim will be posted soon and the outline of his presentation as soon as we receive it. Bob, thanks for setting this up!

After a question and comments session it was decided by the majority of those present that there was enough interest in forming a Maintenance District that we should proceed to the next step. This step involves much of the 'heavy lifting' Jim referred to (please read Jim's docs on our web site):

-Gather assessed property valuation from the county web site for each property, setting up a database by owner, parcel #, address,... and assessed valuation.

Mike Karpinsky has volunteered to coordinate the above effort with those that volunteered to help last night. Mike will be contacting you plan and organize the effort. While that effort is under way I'll work with the other volunteers on the Road Committee to get estimates for maintenance and proposed scope of work for the first year's budget.

Last, but certainly not least, it was decided to use approximately two thirds of our recent contributions to continue road improvements, saving one third for winter snow removal or other emergency. As of 8/16/07 we had $12,378.00 in the fund, collected $300 at the meeting and may continue to receive some contributions in the mail. I'll send another email to the Road Committee Volunteers to coordinate the effort.

I hope I covered it all. If not or if you have specific comments for me you can reply by email, or email 'all' or better yet, let's use the web site/blog.