Down here at the end of our lane
Our mailboxes are out on the highway, and several times we've had mail stolen, mail opened, the mailboxes damaged, even had to go in town a while to pick up our mail because of an anonymous threat someone made to put a bomb in our boxes. Since our little road has seven property owners along it's length, and five residences, I checked to see what it would take to have the mail delivered down our lane. The post office said they cannot deliver on private roads, so my next step was to see if I could get the county to take over maintenance, and make it a county road. That would also save me money since I'd paid for several truck loads of gravel, and for grading. I was told I needed to go through the county attorney for this.
I presented the proposal to the county attorney and was told they'd get back with me. About once every two months I'd stop in to see if there was any progress but was never able to learn anything. More than a year passed. The election saw a new county attorney elected, so I asked for an appointment with him. Talking with him I learned it was not even up to the county attorney, but I had to present a petition signed by all seven property owners to the fiscal court for approval. He gave me the dates the court would be meeting and I drafted a petition, tracked down the two absentee owners, and had the other five owners along the lane sign it. I presented it to that court, and after they did their inspection I was told they would take over maintenance and make it a county road if I changed the entry off the highway. The lane enters the highway at about a 45 degree angle toward the south and makes it difficult to enter from the north. You have to swing wide into the oncoming lane to make the turn. Improving this would require a Y shape because the existing drive cannot be widened due to restrictions on both sides. On the south side is a valve for the water lines, and on the north side a ditch with an 18 inch culvert that runs under the highway. Over a year and a half has passed.
Of course this is state highway property. They have right-of-way 30 feet from the center line, so I had to contact the state highway department about making this change. The local supervisor came out and went over the situation with me, then presented it to his supervisor. Before anything was decided there was a change of personnel and he had to go over it with another supervisor. This happened three times. He was then transferred into a different division for four months, and with these delays another year and a half had dragged on with no decision.
I was finally able to get the district supervisor out, went over it with him, and a couple of weeks later was granted a permit for the needed work. However, it seems the rules had changed about three months earlier. Prior rules required me to purchase the culvert pipe and the highway department would do the work. With the new rules I had to hire a private contractor to do the work as well as pay for the culvert, then have the highway department come out and approve the work once it was finished. About four times as much as it would cost for just the culvert. I had obtained the estimate from the private contractor, then got a bit peeved thinking about how it was costing me a lot more money because the state had dragged their heels. I sent the Governor an email laying this all out.
Two days later I received a return email from the Governors office informing me this had been turned over to the Secretary of Transportation for review and action. The day after that I received a call from the district supervisor informing me they were going to do the work and all I had to do was pay for the culvert. I had been grandfathered in. The culvert is paid for and waiting at the local building supply house, and the first day next week with good weather I'm finally going to get the work done. Once that's completed I'll have the county representative back out to approve the new entrance so the county will take over maintenance. Now I guess I'll have to talk with the local postmaster to find out what I have to do to get the mail service down this lane. Three years and counting. Ain't bureaucracies fun?
I presented the proposal to the county attorney and was told they'd get back with me. About once every two months I'd stop in to see if there was any progress but was never able to learn anything. More than a year passed. The election saw a new county attorney elected, so I asked for an appointment with him. Talking with him I learned it was not even up to the county attorney, but I had to present a petition signed by all seven property owners to the fiscal court for approval. He gave me the dates the court would be meeting and I drafted a petition, tracked down the two absentee owners, and had the other five owners along the lane sign it. I presented it to that court, and after they did their inspection I was told they would take over maintenance and make it a county road if I changed the entry off the highway. The lane enters the highway at about a 45 degree angle toward the south and makes it difficult to enter from the north. You have to swing wide into the oncoming lane to make the turn. Improving this would require a Y shape because the existing drive cannot be widened due to restrictions on both sides. On the south side is a valve for the water lines, and on the north side a ditch with an 18 inch culvert that runs under the highway. Over a year and a half has passed.
Of course this is state highway property. They have right-of-way 30 feet from the center line, so I had to contact the state highway department about making this change. The local supervisor came out and went over the situation with me, then presented it to his supervisor. Before anything was decided there was a change of personnel and he had to go over it with another supervisor. This happened three times. He was then transferred into a different division for four months, and with these delays another year and a half had dragged on with no decision.
I was finally able to get the district supervisor out, went over it with him, and a couple of weeks later was granted a permit for the needed work. However, it seems the rules had changed about three months earlier. Prior rules required me to purchase the culvert pipe and the highway department would do the work. With the new rules I had to hire a private contractor to do the work as well as pay for the culvert, then have the highway department come out and approve the work once it was finished. About four times as much as it would cost for just the culvert. I had obtained the estimate from the private contractor, then got a bit peeved thinking about how it was costing me a lot more money because the state had dragged their heels. I sent the Governor an email laying this all out.
Two days later I received a return email from the Governors office informing me this had been turned over to the Secretary of Transportation for review and action. The day after that I received a call from the district supervisor informing me they were going to do the work and all I had to do was pay for the culvert. I had been grandfathered in. The culvert is paid for and waiting at the local building supply house, and the first day next week with good weather I'm finally going to get the work done. Once that's completed I'll have the county representative back out to approve the new entrance so the county will take over maintenance. Now I guess I'll have to talk with the local postmaster to find out what I have to do to get the mail service down this lane. Three years and counting. Ain't bureaucracies fun?
posted by Fish-2 at 8:01 PM
10 Comments:
it sounds as tho the governors office was quick to respond. That gives me hope.
We should have a "mail" ramblin a postcard shower on the day you get your postal delivery!!!!
Pamela, I don't need the shower, just be happy when the whole thing is resolved. I've talked to the county rep and he said I just need to go before the Fiscal Court once more. He will verify for them the work is done. The postmaster said it's a done deal once the county has agreed to take the road over, so I may have mail down here before the month is out.
My goodness, Fish. I think you must have some bull terrier in you as the average citizen would have thrown in the towel long ago!
I like bull terriers. :)
Thank goodness we didn't have that problem. In fact, the county came along and made the little road in front of our house with only two houses a county road and we didn't want them to. That's because we had to change our address when they renamed the road. So we get a county road we don't want and you have to fight like crazy for something that they should probably be doing automatically. Yeah, beaurocracies are just great! *sigh*
Fish You sound like a very patient guy. I have always been amazed at how insuffience government work is. One can't even talk to them on the telephone. They will say like I'm sorry I'm either on the other phone or out of the office, please leave a message, and little good that does. Actually I can remember a time when it seemed that they would take turns staying home and covering for each other so they got paid while they were staying home.
AGT, I think there's a bit of masochist in me.
Gayle, it was something I thought on for quite a while. I finally decided the benefits of inviting the county in outweighed the possible negatives. I hope I'm right.
Rose, It's long been my opinion that anything the government does takes ten time longer, costs ten times more, and is one tenth as good as private enterprise. And when they're done you soon learn they now have a little more control over some aspect of your life. Government has grown way too big.
Regarding your last comment here, Fish, you're absolutely right. Just wait until they rev up National Health Care. In England they regulate how much you weigh. You won't be covered unless you keep your weight down. With all the obese people in this country there's going to be a lot of extremely unhappy people! That's not the only rule either. Neither do they cover people who smoke.
Governments with national health care maintain rules like that have to be installed or the system won't work. I maintain it won't work anyway. In Canada it sometimes takes weeks to get in, even for something life-threatening. It probably also works the same way in England and in Fwance, but I'm uncertain.
Beaurocracies, whether Government or private, are always slow and incompetent. They are filled with people who don't do any more than they have to do, and won't go out of their way to make anything easier for anyone. I should know. I worked for Civil Service until I couldn't take the incompetence any longer.
I guess your last comment flipped my switch! LOL!
Gayle, I agree with your comments. Nationalized health care has been a catastrophe in every nation that's tried it. Like some wag said, if you think health care is expensive today, wait and see how expenisive it is when it's free. At least places like Canada have a relief valve where those that can afford it, drive over into the U.S. to get needed care when the state won't provide it. Where will we go if health care is nationalized? That system has a built in euthanazia clause. Delay treatment long enough and the patient will die. burial expenses are cheaper than treatment.
Hey Mr Fish 2 Where are you I just found your blog and had started hecking it out. I hope you are well.
Rose, I've been lazy this winter.
I had an earlier blog where I was just "Fish", then blogger messed up and closed me out. It's still there with a lot of the things I've written at
http://fishback.blogspot.com/
I just can't make new posts. So I started a second blog and now I'm Fish 2
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