North Michigan Road needs work

To the editor:

I sent an email two weeks ago to a borough road inspector. She was supposed to forward it to the right person. Never heard anything back.

The issue is north end of Michigan Road. It has never been upgraded from a dirt trail. While the section from Shirley Lake Road to Lake Shore is being chip sealed, this part of the road was fine. It did not need paved when you have other homeowners who cannot get to and from their property at times of the year. They have to plow in winter, with no place to push the snow. The family at the north end had to move out of the home they had built and let it go back to the bank after struggling with the road for seven years or more. They would get promises from borough employees that the road was going to be improved. One year, a crew was sent out to cut the trees off the easement.

This shows poor management practice for the borough. The borough approved these subdivisions years ago without requiring the developer to actually build the access road. The individual property owners can not afford to improve the road alone, and I have personally tried to get all six owners to split the costs to improve it at least to the point of gravel and there is always one or 2 owners who will not help with costs. This is an unfair burden to place on individual property owners especially when funds are spent frivolously on paving roads that are in great condition with gravel.

The assessor’s office has recently doubled the values on all our lots here with no justification. I have called to protest values and the attitude in the office there is like “hey, that’s just the way it is. We think this is the value and there is nothing you can do about it. Oh, you can hire an attorney if you want.”

This is beside the issue of getting North Michigan Road useable year-round.

John Bradley

Willow