Snow days and roads

School was canceled today. Again. At this rate, the kids will be in school until the Fourth of July. And this is an especially wasted day off because it was supposed to be their first day back after their long vacation.

The roads didn't seem that bad to me, but the paved roads near us are often a far cry from the dirt roads on the mountains. I got to see that for myself when I dropped EM off at his math class tonight. It's on a dirt driveway off a small dirt road off a big dirt road off an even bigger dirt road.

I don't entirely understand the attitude towards roads here. There is quite a large Don't Pave the Roads contingent. Did you know there is such a thing as a historic road?

And then there is the issue of private roads versus town roads. At a recent town meeting, a woman asked the town council when her road would switch from a private road to a town road. "It now has seven year-round residents," she said, "and we're spending a lot of money to maintain the road."

The spokesman for the council tried to be gentle. In fact, I think he was a little too gentle, because he had to repeat it several times before she seemed to understand. Basically, private roads aren't built to the same standards as public roads. In order for the town to take over a road, it has to be brought up to town road standards, at the expense of the people who live on the road. And even then, the town is under no obligation to accept the road as a public road. The town has never agreed to take over a previously private road in living memory. And given that almost every road in town is a private road, it's not a good precedent to set.

The head of the town road crew was more blunt: "It will never happen. If the town took over all the private roads, the maintenance would bankrupt the town."

There now. Don't you appreciate your pavement a little more?