Road Grading Update

It appears we may have gotten the entire monsoon season on July 1. Grading is temporarily postponed until we get more moisture on our road...it's currently too dry to do much of anything useful.

Special thanks to all the Road Warriors who got out on our road last weekend and cleared culverts, moved dirt and generally helped extend the life of the road.

Mescalero Remediation Team: Joe Mowrey, Bob Zachry, Mary Wolf, Marc Howard, Candelora Versace and Frank Blanch, who did some finishing work. Thanks also to Frank for fixing Apache Point right after the big rain.

Entrance Clean-up: Dale Gentsch and the Little Green Tractor.

Thanks also to all the residents who worked on the bar ditches in front of their property; there is evidence of diversion channels and other activity along our road that will help direct the flow of rain water (should it ever rain again).

A small team is gathering next weekend (Sunday, 7.25, 4pm) to begin the dissection of the Road Easement documents, in search of ways to compel more residents to contribute. Anyone who wants to be included in this meeting, please contact the board.

Road Crews: weekend plans

Apache Ridge just below Mescalero Trail: remediation crew is meeting at 9 AM on Sunday. Bring a shovel!

Culvert on Apache Ridge just below Apache Trail: the culvert is clog-free but the drainage bowl needs shoring up. Contact Gustav Kocsis, 466-3149, to join a team effort.

Anyone with an earthmoving machine—tractor, bobcat, whatever— who wants to help scoop up material down by the mailboxes and put it back on the road is welcome. Dale will be there with his green tractor this weekend.

Neal's crew will be grading next week, after utility line markings are done.

Thanks to all for helping out!

The Road: The Plan

The grader is parked just below Cresta Pequena, always a hopeful sign. That means sometime in the next few days we'll get a good solid grading with attention to the bar ditches. Casey Ryan has offered to bring his high pressure sprayer to the culverts and see if he can clear them out that way. Dale has offered to scoop up the material down by the mailboxes and deposit it on the rockiest parts of the road. Anyone else who has a little time and energy this weekend is invited to bring a shovel to any of the culverts along the road and clear the drainage path. My family will be working on the mess just below Mescalero Trail on Sunday. I expect some of my neighbors on the upper half of the road may join me. Also, David Kice (Wilowa) has offered to help fill in some of the blanks in the database so we can start contacting people who are still flying under the radar and not receiving newsletters (and not contributing to the road fund). Thank you to EVERYONE for joining in the effort. Let's not let the whole road slide down onto the highway!!

Call for Volunteers

While we are working on solutions for the larger "road" picture, it's apparent that the crater just below Mescalero Trail is going to need some immediate attention. Until we know whether we can get appropriate equipment or personnel to take care of it, anyone with a strong back and sturdy shovel (or little earthmover?) is welcome to head over there and push some dirt and rocks around to alleviate the immediate danger.

Remember, this is OUR road; there is no THEM to leave the hard work to. I'm receiving complaints about the road from people who don't even bother to write a check now and then, but fortunately that's been outweighed by the evidence that some folks have already been out on parts of the road filling in ruts and holes, and others have volunteered their willingness to help.

OK, well, it's raining again, and hopefully it'll be the kind of nice, gentle rain we love instead of a destructive monster like last week's!!! (And thanks to Casey Ryan who has taken over the task of posting your pictures and videos on the blog; if you send them, we will post them!)

Canada de Los Alamos Flood

Here's a quick video of the Cañada de los Alamos Arroyo in all its glory on July 1st, 2010.  There was flooding in homes along its route but not as devastating as we regularly see on the Nightly News.  All in all, those of us living along its path did pretty well and we are thankful for that...!
The Cañada is the 2nd largest water shed in the area.  It drains a vast area of mountains and foothills between the highway and Glorieta Baldy.
Thanks to Conrad Skinner for his quick thinking in shooting this video where the arroyo runs through his and Ellen's property.

Road Work (or not...)

The good news is: The Monsoons have started! The bad news is...well, just drive on our road a ways and you'll see. The contractor has assessed the situation and has found that at least 3 major culverts are full of silt and will probably need to be cleared by hand; there is a washout just below Mescalero Trail and those culverts are also full. Grading, bar ditches, culvert cleaning, collecting all the road material that washed down to the mailboxes and replacing it on the road...right now, the estimate is more than we currently have funds for.

Emptying the bank account now doesn't seem like a good idea...when we could get more gullywashers like the last one and need to do more remediation before summer's end...and what do we do about keeping some reserves for snow removal?

If the entire neighborhood were contributing to the road fund, we would have more resources to work with. As it is, we'll just let you know what we decide to do--and when-- just as soon as we come up with a plan.

Noble Neighbor...

John Graham, 43 Apache Ridge Rd., was lucky enough to get this great shot in December, 09 outside their home.

Thanks, John, for sharing this with us. For those who have heard about these guys living around here, here is the actual proof.