Topic of Paving Maple Road Resurfaces in Southeast

By Holly Crocco

The Town of Southeast has been down this road before.

During the April 16 Southeast Town Board meeting, residents of Maple Road and the neighboring streets once again pleaded with the town to commit to paving at least a portion of the dirt road, which provides the only way in and out of the neighborhood.

Will Angiolillo of James J. Hahn Engineering, P.C., in Brewster, said it’s not simply a matter of paving.

“The key to this road is it’s right along the reservoir, which is a New York City water supply so it’s under the jurisdiction of the NYC Department of Environmental Protection and also the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, which both have significant stringent requirements based on the threshold of work and the work that’s being performed,” he said.

Over the past few years, the town highway department has started to rebuild portions of the road by adding aggregate to the surface.

“As far as gravel roads go, this is one of the better gravel roads,” said Angiolillo.

Town Supervisor Joseph Castellano said the highway department’s efforts seem to be working. “It was a really brutal winter that we just suffered through and the road conditions seem to be fairly decent,” he said.

According to Highway Superintendent Mike Burdick, in years past, not a lot of maintenance was performed on Maple Road, or material added to it. “After the winter you have to add material to these roads every year,” he said. “If you don’t, it just keeps going away and you end up with dirt.”

These last two fall seasons, the department has added a lot of material, which helped come spring, he said.

“If we keep the maintenance program the way it is now and we keep adding material to this road, hopefully we’ll get to the point where we’re not going to have an issue when it thaws out – we won’t get the ruts and the mud,” said Burdick.

According to the superintendent, the department has about $600,000 in its budget for paving, which can cover about 3 ½ to 4 miles of road. “That’s resurfacing an existing road, which is a lot different than paving a dirt road,” he said.

The town maintains about 90 miles of road.

Burdick said that even if the town allotted the entire $600,000 to paving Maple Road, it would barely cover the materials alone. “That’s’ not including any of the drainage or base material,” he said.

Many residents of the neighborhood disagreed with the engineer’s findings.

Richard Fitzsimmons of Enoch Crosby Road thanked the highway department for its attention to Maple Road, but said more needs to be done.

“Being that I drive the road a lot – probably more than anybody – I can tell you it’s not enough,” he said. “We want the same roads that everybody else in the town has.”

Further, he said the gravel road is pretty much impossible for motorcyclists.

“I live there; don’t try to tell me how the road is,” he said. “A lot of tax money over 30 years is coming from that neighborhood… We want the same things that the rest of this town gets… I’m sick of the rocks. I’m sick of the damage to my vehicle.”

Mike Sheil of Enoch Crosby Road said the residents aren’t asking for the entire road to be paved – just a portion of it.

“I think that at least 4/10ths of a mile should be paved – that’s a no-brainer,” he said. “I find it ridiculous to hear the engineer say this is a great road and talk about how all these improvements took place… The highway department is great. They’re there every day… but give people a way out. It’s the responsible thing to do.”

Fellow Enoch Crosby Road resident Jamie Callanan questioned how the engineer can say the road is in good condition.

“Please, never again say this road looks pretty good,” she said. “We drive this every single day and we have a safety issue… It is a ridiculous amount of wear and tear. I’ve had two broken axels from that road, flat tires – everything.”

And it’s not just residents’ vehicles that are affected by it, but town highway vehicles, as well. Add in the man hours spent addressing the potholes and ruts, and it’s an expensive fete to keep Maple Road drivable, she said.

“We don’t ever acknowledge the cost of that road, and I’ve been asking for years: what is the cost?” said Callanan.

She asked the board to think about teens learning to drive on that road, or the ambulances and fire trucks that get called out there but have to drive slow despite an emergency, and of the school bus drivers.

“You’re not putting the safety of all those houses up there and all those residents first, because you’re not making those calls,” she said.

Michael Ducros of Deer Court said the residents in the neighborhood deserve a drivable road.

“There’s at least 60 houses since at least the 1990s, and those houses have contributed a lot of tax money and basically all we get for it is snow plowing and garbage cleaning – and of course the maintenance of the road which of course you wouldn’t have to do if it were paved,” he said.

Gina Occhigrossi of Ivy Hill Road noted that, when her road was paved, drivers started speeding down it, and it became a cut-through.

“It is the most beautiful spot that you can find in Brewster, and the minute you take that away – no, the reservoir isn’t going to go anywhere, but the moment that road is paved… it is going to be a raceway,” she said.

Castellano said discussion on the matter will continue.

“I hope you understand we’re doing the best we can to make that road in the best condition possible,” he said. “We know it’s going to cost a lot to pave the whole thing… We’re trying to be as open and transparent as possible and do the best for everybody.”