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Good intentions don't pave roads

February 3, 2007 12:50 am

BY KELLY HANNON

People who use Holly Drive in Spotsylvania have no shortage of adjectives to describe the private road.

"Disgusting," says Georgette Gunger.

"Trashed," said Christino Capozzi.

"Roller coaster," said Sharon Downs.

These residents of the Green Branch Farms subdivision in Partlow, and about 37 neighbors, were notified by the U.S. Postal Service last month that they have 30 days to improve Holly Drive or lose home mail delivery. The letter was also sent to residents on Bettina Way and Darcy Lane, which use Holly Drive as an entrance road.

"It's not that we don't deliver on private roads, we will, but they have to be maintained to certain standards," said Lois Miller, spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service in Richmond.

Holly Drive is fifth on Spotsylvania County's priority list of private roads to be paved through its "rural addition" program.

It has been on the list since Oct. 28, 1987.

Counties get very little state money to pave private roads, about 5 percent of their annual secondary road funding. In Spotsylvania, that's about $100,000 a year. Paving a road such as Holly Drive, three-fourths of a mile, could cost $350,000 or more, according to past estimates. Bringing a road up to state standards can include widening and improving drainage.

Unless Spotsylvania gets a unexpected infusion of state funding, Holly Drive will likely be paved between 2015 and 2020, said Kathy Smith, Spotsylvania County spokeswoman.

"They are way out," on the list, Smith said.

Meanwhile, life on Holly Drive is bumpy.

The Postal Service will evaluate the road in 30 days and make a final decision, Miller said.

If it drops mail service, residents would have to move mailboxes to state-maintained Shepherds Road. Residents could also get post office boxes.

Residents of Green Branch Farms used to take care of the road, but that has fallen away, Gunger said. She bought her home a year ago.

"When I moved in, there was gravel on the road, and now there's barely any gravel at all," Gunger said. "Occasionally some of the neighbors will fill a pothole in front of their house, but we've got potholes that are 2 feet deep. You can't even do 25 mph on my road."

Capozzi's sons must walk to the end of the street, to Shepherds Road, to board their school buses.

"God forbid an ambulance has to go up and down there and get someone out gingerly--it would be almost impossible," Capozzi said.

Holly Drive could jump ahead on Spotsylvania's priority list if residents were willing to split the cost of improvements with the county.

Residents of Hunter's Lodge Drive, Po River Drive, Hunter's Cove Drive, Todd's Tavern Drive and Rainbow Lane pay a special assessment so their roads will be paved before Holly Drive.

Gunger doesn't think an assessment would be successful on Holly Drive.

"The mentality of some neighbors is, 'We are in a rural area, and we have dirt bikes and four-wheelers and we want to run them on a private road,'" Gunger said. "Some of the neighbors don't want it paved."

Money is also an issue. "Most of the people on this road don't have those types of finances," Capozzi said.

Other Virginians face similar problems, said Ken Smith of the state Department of Transportation's asset management division.

The state does not have a legal responsibility to improve or pave private roads, Smith said. Counties have no obligation to bring them up to state standards.

Hall is sympathetic to residents along these roads, because sometimes developers have led home buyers to think paving and state maintenance is automatic after a certain number of homes are built.

Green Branch residents have learned that's not true.

Downs, who has lived on Bettina Way for six years, said when she moved in neighbors took care of the section of road in front of their homes. She wasn't worried that it wasn't paved.

Downs thinks the situation could be fixed without asphalt.

"Even if it had gravel, or just maintained, that would help," Downs said.