Civic Lends Its Weight to Unimproved Road Cause

North Sea resident John Watson, the chair of the town’s ad hoc unimproved roads committee, is coming to the end of a long pot hole-ridden and puddle-filled road — or at least he hopes.

The ex-Hampton Bays resident, who stopped by his former hamlet’s civic association meeting Monday night, has been working to catalog and analyze the town’s 567 unimproved roads, a potpourri of unpaved, narrow lanes, wide streets maintained by homeowners associations and the “minefields” of Shore and Wauhope roads. 

Now, he’s trying to garner support from the all of Southampton Town's civic associations, fire departments and citizens advisory committees for a proposal that he plans to submit to the town that will suggest something similar to a 1976 town-wide program. He says he will finalize the proposal with his fellow committee members over the next month or two.

Watson found support in Hampton Bays, which has 155 unimproved roads — the most in any town hamlet. He also said he has support from the North Sea Citizens Advisory Committee, which he co-chairs. North Sea has the town’s second-highest number of unimproved roads, 102, he said.

Unimproved roads, also known as private roads, are not included in the town’s highway district or maintained by the town, Watson said. They’re only plowed in a state of emergency, he said. This causes problems for school bus drivers, senior citizens and fire and police departments.

Currently, if residents want their roads paved, they have to foot the bill, Watson said. The town can give a band of homeowners along an unimproved street a low-interest loan to finance the paving, but Watson said the way the figures work out is not equitable for residents.

“That’s why we have the government,” Watson said. “To help us do things.”

He also said that homes on unimproved roads and town-maintained thoroughfares are assessed the same, even though a potential house buyer would be more inclined to buy a house on a town-maintained street.

Lou Martini, who lives on Maple Street, off Shore Road, said the town recently tried to fill in potholes on the block with loose gravel, only to have rain wash the pebbles and rocks away. He and his wife, Regina, are escaping the potholes, snow plow disasters and flooding by going away this winter.

“If you’re going to do a temporary fix, do it right,” Martini said.

Town Highway Superintendent Alex Gregor did not return calls before deadline.