Private Gravel Road Woes

[Capricious]

"..Our road has gotten beyond our abilities at times of persistent rain and we have to pay the county to grade it. See if your county has that option before you invest in equipment. Ours charges less than a $100 per hour and can do it in less than the 1 hour minimum..."



That is something I have considered looking into, although I don't know if the particular county in question has that option. Plus, after first answering my written inquiry as to who was supposed to be maintaining the road (I have a letter back from the county commissioner stating that the county was responsible for maintaining that road) I then proceeded to write (3) additional letters over a two year period, in addition to going to the county courthouse in person, asking them to maintain the road. When I got zero response, I then wrote a letter of complaint to the local newspaper.

Now THAT got their attention, but they did not like it much, so I don't expect much out the a__ holes anytime soon, even if I was to offer to pay for it.

 

[paulharvey]

"..Our road has gotten beyond our abilities at times of persistent rain and we have to pay the county to grade it. See if your county has that option before you invest in equipment. Ours charges less than a $100 per hour and can do it in less than the 1 hour minimum..."

That is something I have considered looking into, although I don't know if the particular county in question has that option. Plus, after first answering my written inquiry as to who was supposed to be maintaining the road (I have a letter back from the county commissioner stating that the county was responsible for maintaining that road) I then proceeded to write (3) additional letters over a two year period, in addition to going to the county courthouse in person, asking them to maintain the road. When I got zero response, I then wrote a letter of complaint to the local newspaper.

Now THAT got their attention, but they did not like it much, so I don't expect much out the a__ holes anytime soon, even if I was to offer to pay for it.

Some counties do, most do not; But... they pay someone to grade roads. All the private developments, MSTU's (municipal service tax units), MSBU's (municipal service benefits unit), etc have someone do it. Even the Forestry service subs out some of there grading. So, that $2400/year could possibly pay for it to be graded every 3-4 months, if there's a guy in the general area (not uncommon to "road run" a grader 10+ miles to a job rather transport it).


Edit: I just noticed the OP hasn't been back since post 1

 

[Capricious]

Some counties do, most do not; But... they pay someone to grade roads. All the private developments, MSTU's (municipal service tax units), MSBU's (municipal service benefits unit), etc have someone do it. Even the Forestry service subs out some of there grading. So, that $2400/year could possibly pay for it to be graded every 3-4 months, if there's a guy in the general area (not uncommon to "road run" a grader 10+ miles to a job rather transport it).


Edit: I just noticed the OP hasn't been back since post 1

Yea, I have already figured out that I will either have to do it, or pay for it. At the moment I don't want to anything other than keep the road barely passable. I have the adjacent parcel, owned by people who live 500 miles away in Iowa, who never responded to my letter asking for help in dealing with the county, and who never answered my letter asking if they would contribute to the cost of fixing the road.

My next letter to them will be a low-ball offer to buy their property, and I don't want a newly-restored road to push the price up.

In the meantime, the little ole Mitsubishi tractor and angle blade ought to be able to keep the road passable to slow-moving, high clearance vehicles.

 

[TractorGuy]

In my particular case I don't know if I can use that argument; for a 7.5 acre vacant parcel (no improvements) the taxes are a bit under seven bucks a year.

However, in the state of Missouri, the rural counties that generally would not collect a lot of road taxes on fuel sales within their own borders, receive an apportioned share of road taxes collected in urban areas, through what is called the county aid road trust. Basically, roads in rural areas are subsidized by tax money diverted from urban/suburban areas.

I have 2.18 acres with a house on it and another 5.05 acres unimproved with timber adjoining. I paid $1700 in tax last year and they do not maintain the roads to my property. The clincher is I pay the same tax mileage rate as the properties on the paved county maintained roads. Our county does not sub the grading of dirt roads but we have to pay them if we want our roads done. There are 20 plus houses in my little neighborhood so they are bilking us all for paved road tax rates and not offering any road maintenance to our properties. I just applied for an agricultural exemption on the timber land so I will see how that goes.

 

[timswi]

I have 2.18 acres with a house on it and another 5.05 acres unimproved with timber adjoining. I paid $1700 in tax last year and they do not maintain the roads to my property. The clincher is I pay the same tax mileage rate as the properties on the paved county maintained roads. Our county does not sub the grading of dirt roads but we have to pay them if we want our roads done. There are 20 plus houses in my little neighborhood so they are bilking us all for paved road tax rates and not offering any road maintenance to our properties. I just applied for an agricultural exemption on the timber land so I will see how that goes.

Same here. Just wrote a check to the township for $1400 and one to the county for $1200 and get absolutely no road maintenance whatsoever. Gonna have to suck it up again this year and buy $100o worth of limestone--again..Sometimes someone will kick some cash in to help, but not always.

 

[Capricious]

I have an older (1959) suburban house, 2 bedroom, 1 bath, on a quarter acre; Zillow says it's worth about $130,000.00 although I think I would have a hard time getting that. Real estate taxes just under $1,700.00 last year. The house is in a subdivision but the county maintains the asphalt roads, including snow plowing/salting.

I have a total of about 35 acres of rural land in two parcels, no structures or other improvements, market value maybe $100,000.00 Total taxes about 75 bucks/year. The larger parcel has frontage on a gravel county road that the county does a decent job of taking care of, but then there are probably 50 cabins/trailers/houses across the road that also need the road for access.

I should add that the larger parcel is in a different county than the smaller parcel with the road issues.

 

[DamCraig]

Recently bought a house at the end of a 1 mile private gravel road and feel your pain. We do not have an HOA or a formal road agreement and our road is shared with 9 other homes. Sadly, it had not been maintained in at least 20 years from what I have heard. Depending on what needs to be done to make it acceptable the costs and time could be significant. I won't go into all the details but, with some effort, we have worked with the neighbors and most have come together to pay for materials and such to get it up to a decent road.

We are about 2/3 done at this point and cost so far is around 20K with an expected 30K total. This is material cost only for 1.5 crush and class 6 roadbase, labor and equipment is covered by myself and another neighbor with our tractors. It's a ton of money and time but far cheaper than hiring it out. Once the initial build is done maintenance should be reasonable.

 

[Old Junk Man]

my dad lived at the dead end of a mile of public road maintained by the county. That maintenance consisted of grading right before it was gonna rain. There wasn't a right of way or deeded easement. Just a prescriptive use acquired by adverse possession. The last 1/4 mile at the end was on his land and had a steep hill. In the winter & spring it got soft and folks in 4 wheel drives would cut his hill up and we had to fix it. And the county road grader always graded down hill and scraped the gravel off leaving red clay. (you ever try to drive on wet red clay? After almost 50 years I got control. And I placed a locked gate at the top of the hill right at the property line. I didn't stop anyone from access to their lands. Then I fixed the road bed on our place with rough ballast and SB2 gravel watered & rolled. never had troubles ever again and the grader blade on the tractor was all that was needed to keep it in shape.