4 hours ago
It is certain the County cannot take responsibility for everything at once- that would surely bankrupt them.
My initial response would be “why should we care?” Why should we give any more consideration to how they finance the road maintenance than the consideration they gave us when they pulled off the Great Puna Land Scam? Or at any time since, for that matter?
I can set that aside for a moment and examine it more closely. I think the statement assumes that if the county takes over ownership of the roads it will immediately bring them up to “county standard”. Yes, that would be extremely expensive, but it won’t happen. It would be nearly impossible for it to happen, what with most of the roads being less than the required 60’ width. The newly acquired roads would simply be added to the other 700 miles or so of substandard roads that the county already owns and maintains.
Yes, it would cost the county some money. We have a pretty large tax base now, and Puna has never gotten a fair share of the pie. So if Puna actually got a fair share would that be enough? How about after adding in a fair share of the fuel tax revenue? How is it that other areas can have county owned and maintained roads without breaking the bank?
It’s hard to say what level of maintenance would be held, or whether there would be any improvement at all. Who knows? But one thing is for sure, if you have a gripe about the roads you won’t be taking that gripe to your association board. And that would be refreshing.
My initial response would be “why should we care?” Why should we give any more consideration to how they finance the road maintenance than the consideration they gave us when they pulled off the Great Puna Land Scam? Or at any time since, for that matter?
I can set that aside for a moment and examine it more closely. I think the statement assumes that if the county takes over ownership of the roads it will immediately bring them up to “county standard”. Yes, that would be extremely expensive, but it won’t happen. It would be nearly impossible for it to happen, what with most of the roads being less than the required 60’ width. The newly acquired roads would simply be added to the other 700 miles or so of substandard roads that the county already owns and maintains.
Yes, it would cost the county some money. We have a pretty large tax base now, and Puna has never gotten a fair share of the pie. So if Puna actually got a fair share would that be enough? How about after adding in a fair share of the fuel tax revenue? How is it that other areas can have county owned and maintained roads without breaking the bank?
It’s hard to say what level of maintenance would be held, or whether there would be any improvement at all. Who knows? But one thing is for sure, if you have a gripe about the roads you won’t be taking that gripe to your association board. And that would be refreshing.