Last night over thirty Morongo Valley residents and representatives from San Bernardino County Public Works gathered in Covington Park’s Mesquite Room to discuss the formation of a special roads district to annually maintain their dirt roads.
Organized by Morongo resident Grace Hamilton, who has built the fact -based website crappyroads92256.com dedicated to the proposed project, the meeting was led by San Bernardino County Public Works Division Manager Henry Mac and Assistant Director David Doublet. The proposed special roads district would include parcels between North Star and Navajo Trail, but Mac and Doublet assured attendees nothing would move forward until more information was given to residents, in which the next step would be to raise the initial refundable $2500 and eventually go to a ballot pass/fail vote, a process that could take up to a year.
Both representatives were thorough and transparent with all information and took the time to answer every resident’s concern for the robust and engaging hour-long meeting. When one attendee asked for a ballpark estimate on what this annual maintenance would cost each parcel, Doublet said the cost is low at “$90-$125 a parcel and whatever funds don’t get used get put into a reserve for future maintenance.
Two attendees inquired about a road like Navajo Trail and Rawson, both of which are “paved” but are riddled in undrivable potholes and erosion. Doublet assured those roads would not be repaved, citing it as cost prohibitive to residents, while some residents want paved roads, others do not. Doublet said these roads would have to be assessed for the most cost effective and practical route, whether it be pulverizing the existing asphalt to grade, or to remove the asphalt to return it back to dirt to grade.
Organizers of the meeting handed out initial survey packets and encouraged attendees to reach out to their neighbors in the proposed district. In the meantime, residents can consult crappyroads92256.com.
