A lot has happened…

On Friday, Paul, Joe and Dan met on the road with Wes to talk about what’s happened and what’s been offered. Wes can operate some light equipment and will see about rentals.

We all agree that we need to bring the material from the sides into the middle of the road and build up a crown to direct the water to the sides and then as much as possible, away from the road into holding areas where the water can slowly soak in.

Paul was talking with two people who are building way up on the road and they offered $500 each. That brings the amount pledged to over $2,000, besides the $2,771.52 in the bank.

Paul has talked with the county some more and it sounds like they won’t consider maintaining our road until we’ve brought it up to code ourselves, which is close to impossible. Let’s keep that on the back burner, and continue reminding the county that emergency vehicles unable to get up here may get them into trouble later on…

OK – so, we met on the road. Wes suggests that it would be good to put some water holding spots along the road to direct water off the road as much as possible as it comes down the hill. There are some little ditches running off the road that have filled with sand and road material that can be cleaned out and the material moved back onto the road. 

Entact has agreed to deliver the Red River Road washout material (150 yds) for free. The material is from the US Forest Service and hopefully we’ll get that permit before the government shuts down(?) on Tuesday. The permit cost ($300) will be split by Joe and “J”. Thanks!

Of course, that’s not enough material to complete the road repairs. In fact, some of that material will go on the north/south part of Llano Road, where there are some huge mud puddles.

While we were talking on the road, a friend of Wes’s, Antonio, drove up and talked with us in front of his house. He’s very interested in helping and is licensed to operate heavy machinery, like a backhoe, to move the dirt around and dig water-holding areas. Antonio owns property on both sides of the road and will let us drain water into some areas. Paul and Dan, too, have places that can hold water.

We’ll be staking out areas along the road where we can store road material as we begin to make repairs. 

We’ve come a long way, and we’re getting much-needed help, but we’ll be spending a lot of money for more material, from MTC and/or Ortega’s Gravel, and for renting machines and operators to do the final top dressing of the base coarse material, to grade it and roll it.

There’s a lot of interest in creating “speed bumps” at the places where we’ll be directing water off the road. Less water, less damage… More speed bumps, fewer hot rods…

Also, at the places where roads and driveways enter Llano Road, in lieu of culverts, we want to create hard rocky swails where water can pass over without eroding the approaches further, keeping the water on the sides of the road.

As more people become interested, and as this is, of necessity, becoming a DIY project, I wonder if we should consider hiring a “road man,” an expert to coordinate our repairs for the best result. Can anyone suggest somebody?

We’ll do as much as we can with what we can scrape together. We’re now over $5,000 in pledged money, and almost ready to begin…

I’ll post this at https://pinabete.us.

Have I left anything out? Suggestions? 

Thanks to all,

Dan

Comments:

Roger says: Amellio Quintana came highly highly recommended to us and will be looking at the end of Coyote Rd for us.

Jan says: Sounds like great progress, Dan! If we were here longer, we could offer some manual labor at least, but unfortunately, we can’t make that happen. We appreciate your time and effort and everyone else that is helping out. It’s like a little piece of heaven up here!