Town residents say no to plowing roads

VAN BUREN – Residents on Thursday night opposed a proposal to plow two roads that have been closed to winter maintenance for decades.

The proposal to plow Settlement Road was turned down by a close vote, 33-27, after an hour’s discussion. The 1.1-mile section of Settlement Road has three school-age children who have to walk more than a mile to get to a school bus stop. The road was being plowed temporarily, since December, by a vote of the Van Buren Town Council.

Alexander Road was turned down rather quickly, by a show of hands, after a brief discussion.

“It’s a matter of economics,” Town Manager Larry Cote said. “Settlement Road is not a road than can be maintained 12 months a year without putting a lot of money into it.

“We have a number of other roads in town that need a lot of work, and there is just so much money,” he said. “Taxes would go up considerably because the road would have demanded a lot of work and money.”

Charles Clarke, a resident of Settlement Road, took up the cause of having the road plowed because three school-age children live on the 1.1-mile section of road. He was not happy with the town meeting decision.

“I am extremely disappointed that people did not care enough to be concerned about these three children,” he said Friday. “It’s simply pathetic that the safety issues are being ignored because of fears of excess amounts of money being spent.

“It isn’t over. We may have to make a petition, but we will do something else with this issue,” he said. “I also believe the negative motion confused people. With such a close vote, it could have made a difference.”

Not everyone on Settlement Road was in favor of having the road plowed. One of them is Craig Troeger. He and his wife have lived on the road for 20 years.

“We live at very end of the road, and we moved here for peace and quiet and the remoteness of the location, knowing full well it was a closed road,” Troeger said Friday. “Adults make choices in life, and people who want the conveniences live in town.

“People who choose to live in places like this choose to do so, knowing that there are consequences, like not having the ready access to town services,” Troeger said. “It’s completely unreasonable to make the informed choice to live in this location and then make demands for conveniences.”

Troeger, like others in town, believes it would be an expensive project to take care of Settlement Road.

“The issue that has gotten lost in this [is] the children,” Troeger continued. “It’s entirely possible to find a solution to protect the children and get them to school on time without opening the road. Something that could cost far less.”

Five families live on the Settlement Road, which has been closed to winter maintenance for decades. Included among the nine people living there are a fourth-, fifth- and ninth-grader, the children of Gordon Hastings and Donna Coombs.

Like the other families on the road, including the Clarkes, the family has no electricity or telephones. Most of the families have generators to develop power, when needed. The closest utility pole is 2.5 miles away.

Cote said the town has spent about $3,000 to open the road since January.

The town manager said the ditches along Settlement Road would need to be excavated because water runs onto the road causing ice problems. He said the section proposed for winter maintenance also has open fields and several hills.

“It was probably closed for winter maintenance because of these problems,” Cote said.

Even when the town was plowing the 1.1 miles of Settlement Road, Clarke and a neighbor still opened eight-tenths of a mile of road to their homes.

Clarke has not been shy. He approached the SAD 24 school board in December and then took his problem to the town council.

Since the town was been plowing the road, families were able to drive the children to where the school bus picks them up.

Decades ago, the Settlement Road area had 143 kids and two local schoolhouses. It was a rural farm area and the farmers living there had huge families back then.