To the editor:
It is time to address the quality of the roads in Marblehead. As residents, our town taxes should be used to provide essential services, including proper road maintenance. However, the roads are unacceptably bad and some of the worst in the entire country. The town does not appear to have a long-term strategy for maintaining the roads. They patch rather than pave the roads. Patching leaves the roads very bumpy with undulations, seams and ridges that make driving unsafe and miserable.
We all have to pay for the wear, tear and damage being done to our vehicles caused by the poor quality roads. Our tax dollars should be used to pave the roads, not patch. The Town needs to understand that when you patch the roads it costs more than paving the whole road. It’s analogous to a leaky roof.
When you patch a hole in the roof, it tends to leak again and next thing you know there are more holes, and damage to your hardwood floors and an electric short. Had you found a way to replace the roof when it was needed, you would have spent less overall and been far more comfortable and safer.
Paving the entire road means that the crews will not have to come back for road repairs for years to come; there are up-front costs to paving but the Town would save in the long run and provide the residents a quality service that is necessary and expected.
There are many excuses that have been thrown around as to why the road quality in Marblehead head is so bad. The town may claim that they simply do not have the money to properly pave the roads. When it comes time to pay our taxes, can the residents claim that they simply don’t have the money?
Just like with personal budgets, the town needs to plan for unexpected costs and manage our tax dollars in a way that allows for basic, quality services. The variable weather is another excuse. This doesn’t stand up at all since there are communities all over this country with highly variable weather who have excellent quality roads.
We take pride in our community, but we should be ashamed of our roads. We have a beautiful, new assisted living facility with a road in front of it that is appalling. We have a beautifully renovated library with a terrible access road. The police and fire crews have to drive on unacceptably bad roads to enter and exit their facilities. Kids and families going in and out of the middle and high school have to bump along on knotty, undulating pavement to get to school. Many of the roads in Marblehead are no longer roads but rather crumbling islands of black top. The residents of Marblehead need to stand up and say enough is enough. Please tell the Director of Public Works to start paving now, stop patching.
Susan Alford
Dennett Road
