County plan to maintain private roads a no-go

A plan for the county to maintain or adopt a number of currently privately owned roads is not going to happen.

Earlier this year the county had asked for a state opinion on whether it could legally maintain a number of privately owned roads because the roads are in such bad shape.

The list includes Buck Street in Eastpoint, roads in the Pine coast Plantation and the end of paradise Lane in Apalachicola.

Commissioners said these roads, and possibly others, need to be maintained so they can be used by emergency vehicles, but the owners are either unable or unwilling to do the maintenance.

On Tuesday the commission learned that it could not maintain them as long as they are under private ownership.

The county is also limited on which roads it can adopt – since a road has to be brought up to county standards before the county can accept it.

County attorney Michael Shuler said there is only a narrow exception that would allow the county to work on private roads and that is in case of a declared emergency in which the county has to provide assistance to homeowners, but that exception does not impact any of the roads at this time.

http://www.oysterradio.com e-mail manager@oysterradio.com with comments http://live.oysterradio.com/