Hi neighbors:
Thank you to everyone who attended our All Neighbors Meeting on Wednesday evening; your interest and lively input is much appreciated. We also appreciated having the chance to meet some of our newest neighbors: Doug Peck at 14 Cresta Pequena, Deb Gartenschlaeger and her brother Gary Bergmann at 15 Wilowa Lane and Dorothy Massey at 159-B Apache Ridge Rd.
For those of you who missed it, we had very informative presentations by Bob Sherwin of RoadPacker International and County Commissioner Kathy Holian.
Mr. Sherwin gave a very detailed presentation of RoadPacker's road surface material and answered numerous questions from the group. Essentially, it is a soil stabilization product that hardens the native road material plus additives like clay into a hard surface that is water repellant and does not need any grading. It lasts at least 10 years without maintenance.
The road would look like a dirt road but would not washboard or need grading. It is also snowplowable without needing to lift the blade up an inch the way basecoarse requires. It can be trenched for under-road wiring and repaired by simply applying the product and more material to the trenched area; it has a self-healing capacity that causes it to bind to itself so cracks disappear.
He also explained what went wrong with the Spur Ranch Road project (if you have not been following the story in the New Mexican, you can go to
sfnewmexican.com and search Spur Ranch Road)
He said as a new distributor, he had 2 tests done of the road material but was unaware of a 3rd test for the material which is brought in to the road. In the Spur Ranch Rd case, they needed clay but did not realize without the 3rd test that what they got was silt, and that did not bind with the RoadPacker material. The company is redoing Spur Ranch Rd, and residents are welcome to go down there, off Hwy 285 just past Eldorado, and check it out.
For a general idea of cost, he said the RoadPacker material cost is $25,000 per mile, plus approximately $10,000 for contractors and imported material. Considering how parts of Apache Ridge in the first mile are worn down to bedrock, we could conceivably have increased costs for imported material, but even at double the quoted price it would be a small fraction of the 500K + per mile the county quotes for asphalt.
He also spoke about engineering issues, noting that culverts may be necessary or could be avoided by re-engineering the road before RoadPacker treatment to minimize erosion issues.
Obviously, if Apache Ridge residents and the county decide to work together to bring RoadPacker to our road, there are many details and issues that would need to be decided regarding the engineering and erosion issues, among many others.
For more information about ionic soil stabilization, you can look at their website,
www.roadpackers.com and
www.roadpackernm.com . They have been working all over the world for 25 years and have an excellent track record.
Commissioner Holian, who has put RoadPacker on her long driveway on Glorieta Mesa and is very happy with it, explained how Apache Ridge residents could get the county to help out. We would form a County Improvement District for a one-time infusion of cash and engineering assistance; the cost would then be assessed to all residents by the county for long-term repayment. We could also petition the Legislature for capital improvement funds to help out with the overall cost. Commissioner Holian indicated that this would be an excellent project for the Legislature to consider.
There are 2 ways to create a County Improvement District: the PROVISIONAL method would involve an informed County Commission making the decision the create the district; the PETITION method would involve a percentage of the neighbors petitioning the commission to ask them to create the district. There were many questions about how the residents get involved in both these processes and how the assessments are applied to the property owners. Some of those questions need to be answered by the County Attorney, so the board is planning another meeting with him and Commissioner Holian in January to clarify some of these details.
Once we have better clarity on the details, we'll be sending out a letter to the entire neighborhood regarding this process and what we need to do to move forward. Your input is crucial to this process.
~~ The current system is unsustainable; the road will continue to degrade faster than we can afford to fix it with only half the residents paying towards maintenance. Considering the hundreds of thousands of dollars of infrastructure the road represents, it is not a responsible option to stop maintaining the road.
If you feel strongly ONE WAY OR THE OTHER about moving forward with county funding and mandatory assessments to upgrade the road using RoadPacker, please make your voice heard. ~~
DON'T FORGET TO SEND IN YOUR BALLOT FOR THE 2012 BOARD (you can mail your ballot or email your choices to the board).
Thanks very much for your input and attention...wishing you all a safe and peaceful holiday season....
~candelora
Candelora Versace, Apache Ridge Property Owners Association
ARPOAboard@gmail.com ~www.arpoa.blogspot.com
2011 Board: Candelora Versace, Kristin Ryan, Gustav Kocsis, Michael Jerry, Tim Davis and Booth Gallett
ARPOA, 44 Apache Ridge Rd, SF NM 87505
