Dust Control – Soil Stabilization – Erosion Control

BROOKSVILLE – These days, Audrey Mahoney says she has to drive her Lexus sports car on the front grass of a foreclosed house next door to avoid a three-foot wide crevice that formed in the hardened limerock near her home on Eggers Lane in Royal Highlands.

Ed Vanderleelie, her neighbor on adjoining Mackinaw Road, says he’s tried to fill in a deep road rut in front of his mailbox to help out the postal carrier, but it’s no use. The water just washes it all away.

And Margaret and Raymond Favichia, who live across the street from Vanderleelie, had to stop inviting their friends in the Christian Motorcycle Association to visit for fear of someone hitting a good-sized pothole in front of their driveway and ending up in the ditch.

They have cracks and they need dust control 

These neighbors are irate, especially after reading an article they read Sunday in Hernando Today that the county was using $1.27 million in federal stimulus money to resurface the entire 20-mile length of the Suncoast Parkway bicycle and pedestrian trail.

They also object to county commissioners voting last week to spend $760,000 to resurface parts of Deltona Boulevard, Spring Hill Drive and Burwell Road. Commissioners reason it is cheaper to do it now when they are in good shape than wait until they deteriorate.

The county calls it preventive maintenance: resurface now, save money later.

At Tuesday’s Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) meeting, Transportation Planning Coordinator Dennis Dix admitted resurfacing of the 10-year-old trail could have waited four or five years.

He said the federal stimulus money gave the county the opportunity to take care of it now without spending more money down the road.

But Brooksville Councilwoman and MPO member Lara Bradburn said she believes taxpayers would be better served by improving the Good Neighbor Trail rather than spending more than one million on the Suncoast Trail, which she called in fairly good condition.

Margaret Favichia calls it wasteful spending, especially when so many people who live on substandard and limerock roads battle daily with potholes and cracked surfaces.

"Some of these roads are being repaved and they don’t need it," said Favichia, who said it has been at least one year since any serious grading has been done on her road.

Favichia said she knew when she moved there she would have to put up with a limerock road. But the Realtor told her neighbor that in time, the road would be paved.

Three years later, it’s still not paved and the potholes and dust are getting worse.

Favichia said she and her neighbors feel neglected in Royal Highlands and believe the county is dragging its feet improving their roads.

"We bought the house with the anticipation that growth would come and the county would catch up with it and (improve) the roads," she said.

Or as her husband Ray puts it: "They’re improving the improved roads."

And he doesn’t believe he should have to petition the county to form a Multiple Service Benefit Unit (MSBU) because he already pays about $3,000 a year in taxes, which should pay for road upkeep.

Under an MSBU, the county pays one-third of road improvements and residents pay two-thirds.

County Commissioner Dave Russell defended the Suncoast Trail resurfacing project. The feds, he said, were seeking "multi-modal" projects with a wider impact on different modes of transportation. The trail, he said, was tailor-made because it involved bicycles and pedestrians and affected a wider area.

Also, limerock roads were not eligible for federal stimulus funds, Russell said.

Russell said the county is making a concerted effort to improve limerock roads and has been able to shift funds into that project. The priority for resurfacing goes to roads that are heavily traveled and connect to other highways.

Royal Highlands, like other limerock roads in the county, are routinely maintained, he said.

Russell said people know when they move to a limerock road what they are getting.

He said he lives on the far end of an unimproved private road that is not maintained by the county.

"I knew that going in," Russell said.

"Unfortunately, a lot of folks buy on limerock roads and are told by developers and builders there are plans to have the road paved and they don’t know better," he said. "When it doesn’t come to fruition, they’re upset."

Or people buy a home on a limerock road during the wet season and don’t know how much dust can be kicked up during the dry months, Russell said.

Russell said about 90 percent of the former limerock roads in Royal Highlands were paved through property owners petitioning the county for an MSBU.

And because of low interest rates and the cheap cost of paving, now is the ideal time for homeowners to go that route, he said.

County Engineer Charles Mixson said county commissioners have approved putting $390,000 into its limerock road surface treatment program to help with dust control.

Commissioners asked Mixson to do two years worth of treatment this past year, amounting to six miles of roadwork.

Mixson said he will approach county commissioners in October about an updated five-year plan to start next year’s program.

Mixson said Mackinaw Road was last graded on June 11 and Eggers Lane this past summer.

Nobody has called in a service request for either road this year, Mixson said.

Both roads are "very short roads" and only graded when needed, he said.

Meanwhile, the county engineering department has been using a less expensive alternative called "chip sealing," which is a limerock-prepared base topped with two layers of asphalt and rock.

Cost is about $130,000 per mile, or roughly 40 percent of the road paving.

The downside: Chip sealing is a short-term option and the sealant starts breaking down in 5 to 7 years, depending on traffic.

Chip sealing is what the county did on Star Road, when residents complained about the dust and condition of that limerock road.

Former Spring Hill Fire Commissioner Bob Kanner, who lives in Royal Highlands, said he finds it ridiculous the county is resurfacing roads that are barely in need of repair and neglecting ones that are more in need.

"That money would be better spent on law enforcement and other services," he said.

The sheriff has already vowed to cut the department’s anti-drug program for schools and to close his five substations for lack of money.

"This is gross negligence on spending tax money on repaving roads unnecessarily when they’re cutting back on law enforcement and fire service and there are roads here in Royal Highlands that have never been paved," Kanner said.