CANTON — Alden Cousins of Alden Hill Road grilled selectmen Thursday night on why the road was in such poor shape last winter, and he asked if he should move if they didn’t plan to fix it.
Alden Hill Road is off Crash Road in Livermore Falls. Part of the road is in Jay, so last October, Jay graded the road and put in 34 loads of gravel.
Canton Selectman Robert Walker Jr. estimated in October that the project cost the town about $15,000, but it had to be done.
After Cousins said Thursday night that the work was substandard, selectmen apologized. They said the town crew would do drainage and culvert work this summer.
“I’d like to know if we can avoid having another situation like we had for another year,” Cousins said.
He said the snow was not winged back far enough. “So all the water went to the lowest point on the road and created the mudholes. Last year, when they put the new material on the road, it contained a lot of clay, which just added to the problem, because it was so slippery trying to go uphill.”
“I agree,” Board of Selectmen Chairman Donny Hutchins said.
Cousins said the initial ruts were probably 6 inches deep, but grew to 8 inches deep.
“That’s when you became concerned that the oil pan would get hung up, and we went without mail for over two weeks because the post office truck wouldn’t go up there,” the 83-year-old said. “And also, emergency vehicles without four-wheel drive probably wouldn’t make it.
“And that’s why I’m here,” Cousins said. “It doesn’t have to be that way another year. I think, myself, I would move out because if I had a medical emergency, and I do have some health problems, I would move out and not take a chance that they can’t get in there.”
Selectman Malcolm Ray asked him what needs to be done.
Cousins said the snow needs to be winged back off the road and the drainage opened up and better material put on the road.
“I think where we made the mistake is we pushed really hard to get that road graveled and we used the same gravel that was used on (another road), and when we put that material down, the season was drier, so it had time to compact,” Hutchins said.
When they put the material on Alden Hill Road, Hutchins said, it didn’t have time to compact. “So when the water got in there, it saturated the road.”
Cousins said when he alerted the town to the problem, no one ever came. “And my neighbors called as well,” he said.
Road Foreman Paul McKenna said the road needs to be ditched much better, “but that material did have a lot of clay in it. It wasn’t that good of material, I didn’t think.”
Hutchins apologized for the problems and said he’d like to see more ditching and drainage work this year to prevent a similar problem next winter.
“It’s great right now, because the clay has set up like concrete and it’s like a superhighway,” Cousins said.
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