After years of town entreaties, residents of a private section of Old County Road in Windham fixed up their section of the narrow dirt road late last month in order to avoid the discontinuation of winter plowing.

But some road residents are critical of the town’s strategy.

The Windham Public Works department has been urging the residents of the 1,000-foot private section of road to make improvements since 2010. The road has a public easement.

According to the department, the private section of road, located atop a hill in central Windham, had a poor profile, insufficient gravel and no crown. There was a buildup of brush, gravel and sand on the side of the road, and the ditches and culverts were full of sediment. Altogether, the road was eroding badly, and runoff was creating ice buildups that posed hazards to plow drivers.

“It was very hard to plow with our trucks because of the roughness and the condition of the road itself,” said Public Works Director Doug Fortier.

But the residents did not respond to the department’s numerous letters urging them to fix the problem – until the town threatened to cut off plowing this coming winter.

The town’s three-person Public Easement Committee sent a letter Dec. 17, 2014, to the nine property owners on the private section of the road, establishing a July 31 deadline for the improvements.

“The portion of Old County Road that is a public easement has been inspected again this year and the deficiencies that were reported to your association last year have not been corrected and have become worse,” the committee wrote. “If Old County Road does not meet the required improvements by July 31, 2015, the Public Easement Committee will recommend to the council to discontinue plowing Old County Road.”

The improvements still had not been made by July 13, when Fortier wrote a letter to the residents informing them that the recommendation to discontinue plowing would move forward.

In response to Fortier’s letter, Old County Road residents Bob Shane and Dave Cunningham did the work themselves, using $1,800 raised from the neighborhood for materials.

“We bit the bullet everyone just kicked in $100 and put the dirt down,” said Shane’s wife, Jackie.

Town officials have inspected the road and determined that it is now safe for plow drivers. But to Jackie Shane, who has lived on the road for a dozen years, the larger issue has not been resolved. Shane doesn’t think residents should have to pay additional money to maintain the road.

“I don’t want a (road) association,” she said. “I don’t have time for it. I don’t want to deal with it. I pay around $5,000 a year in property tax and now they want me to fix the road?”

Shane, who lives with her husband and two children, said there are people on the road who cannot afford to pay for regular road maintenance.

“I’m not the only person up here,” she said. “There are other people that are on a fixed income. They can barely afford to live.”

According to Town Council Chairman David Nadeau, the town of Windham used to own Old County Road, but eventually determined that it “didn’t need it anymore.”

“It didn’t connect to anything,” Nadeau said. “It was a dead end. People built on it. The people never formed a road association and the town kept plowing it. A public easement road has to be maintained by the people on it. The town does not maintain it. Old County Road never maintained it. And it became dangerous to plow it in the wintertime.”

To Fortier, a road association is the price residents pay for living on a private road.

“I live on a private road,” he said. “If you live on a private road, it’s a private road. You’ve got to maintain it. I’m sorry to say it – that’s the way it is.”

For Shane, the fix made by her husband and Cunningham is a temporary, and ultimately unsatisfying, one.

“So we have to keep putting dirt in every spring that just goes to the bottom of the hill,” she said. “The plow truck comes up and all the dirt goes to the bottom of the hill again and then we’re right back at square one.”

To town officials, the situation has been resolved – for now.

“They cleaned the ditches out and they added gravel and graded the road,” Fortier said. “It took them to go the edge of the cliff. If that’s what it takes, OK, but the people that are living in there have a better road now.”

?Some r?esidents of a private section of? ?Old County Road? in Windham? invested $1,800 to improve their road late last month.? ?This picture was taken Aug?.? 5, after the improvements were made. Town? ?officials had threatened to discontinue winter plowing if problems? were not fixed? by the end? ?of July.? ?Photo ?c?ourtesy of Jackie Shane