On October 7th of last year, a resident of Forest Lane engaged in a conversation with a gentleman working along the road, asking him what he was doing. The man replied that he was doing surveying work, to support the engineering for the paving of Forest and Freeform!
Since then, numerous concerned citizens of the area have been in contact with the County to find out what is going on.
So what IS going on?
The County has determined that, due to the “continuous issues with having to grade this road”, that it would better serve the county to pave it. When queried last October, when we first became aware of this, the County Manager, Mr. Rios stated: “The funding for this road is in place and will pave (sic) what is currently maintained by the County”.
The scope of the project has, apparently, never changed: The paving of Forest Lane from Placitas West Rd. to its intersection with Freeform Road, then paving all of Freeform Road to the north. Various iterations of this were floated, with the scope of the project finalized as: Paving of Forest from the junction of Placitas West to Freeform, and the paving of ALL of Freeform, down to the turn-around on the north end of the road. There would be no pavement west of Freeform on Forest. Erosion control would be achieved by using a new type of grading: Instead of crowning the road, the surface would have a slight “v” shape, funneling the runoff into the middle of the road, which would then be diverted at intervals into existing run off areas, which would be “improved” with rocks etc. to provide some erosion control. Driveways and other roads (public and private) intersecting Forest and Freeform would, as needed, be paved for approximately 5 ft. to allow access to the new pavement. Note that this is per conversations with County Staff, the actual project will be presented to the residents of Placitas in the public meeting below.
The County Manager has consistently stated, since we found out about this last October, that this is a financial decision: The County has been spending too much money on blading the road, (including, apparently, Freeform!) and he has decided that the County’s money is best spent on paving, not maintaining. As of late last week, the County was still pulling together the maintenance logs for these two roads, and the Financial Analysis was scheduled to be performed.
Numerous calls by local residents to the County Manager’s office has not swayed the County’s determination to pave these roads. The only rationale given is that it has “cost to much” to maintain these roads due to the number of requests for maintenance. Note that as of Friday the 17th, NO Financial Analysis, and NO Analysis of Alternatives had been performed! (Per a telecon with the County Manager on 2/17). Additionally, I am not aware that a Staff Recommendation was ever solicited from the Road Department. The financial analysis will be provided at the Public Meeting!
Additionally, numerous residents of the area have been in contact with Mr. Olando Lucero, our County Commissioner, to see if there would be any opportunity to impact the scope of this project, as many residents feel the expenditure of County funds would be better spent on other related transportation projects. Mr. Lucero has been receptive to our input, but to date nothing has swayed the determination of the County to have these two roads paved. It appears to some of us affected that the County has made up its mind that the paving will take place, despite the numerous calls and emails from concerned Citizens.
Please attend a Public Meeting currently scheduled for Monday, 27 February at 6:30 PM. It will be held at the Transportation Center at the Hwy 550 Railrunner station. The County will present the proposed Scope and Schedule for the Project. Please note that County Manager has stated to me that this meeting is NOT SOLICITING PUBLIC INPUT, and that HE WILL GRANT THE AUTHORIZATION TO PROCEED with the project to be completed within approximately 2 weeks! Please come and get your opinion into the record with either your concerns or support of this proposed paving project. It is important that our public officials consider our opinions before expending our tax dollars or proceeding with “improvements” that might actually negatively affect us. So even if you have no opinion on the paving, please attend the meeting and support our desire for a public vetting of this proposed public project.
Please contact Commissioner Lucero at 934-3392 and Mr. Rios, County Manager at 867-7538 and ask that this project be stopped until the Taxpayer’s voice can be heard.
If you know of other paving or other public projects under consideration in Placitas that you have concerns, please let me know: Warren Seehuus at 417-2960, or you can leave your comment as a reply to this ES-CA Forum article.