Saturday, December 14, 2024
Residents of Oak Trail Shores recently gathered at a Hood County Commissioners Court meeting to advocate for the county's acceptance of Lakeshore Drive as a maintained road.
While a failed motion ultimately left community members feeling discouraged, residents Terry McDonnell and Donald Rohde remained determined in making their voices heard, as they discussed how the road’s deteriorating condition poses a potential safety hazard to the community.
McDonnell, who previously served as president of the Oak Trail Shores homeowners association, spoke at the meeting Oct. 22, and explained that he successfully advocated for several road repairs in the community with the help of former Precinct 4 Commissioner Steve Berry.
“I got all the roads except two in Oak Trail Shores done, and of those two, one of them is a side road, and the other one is Lakeshore Drive,” McDonnell said. “It took me almost two years to convince him (Berry) (to get the roads fixed). I hope it's not going to take this long this time.”
He noted that there is a provision for safety which requires that roads be maintained in a manner that ensures safe access to the community. McDonnell urged the commissioners to vote in favor of this motion and invited Rohde, another resident from Lakeshore Drive, to share additional insights about the road conditions and its impact on the community.
Rohde, a new resident to the community, explained that he had been “thrown into the fire” to represent other neighbors on Lakeshore Drive as they advocate for change. He shared several letters from fellow residents requesting urgent repairs, adding that the road is in “really bad shape,” and marked by huge potholes. He also recounted a personal experience where emergency responders struggled to access the road after his niece was injured on a jet ski, which resulted in a lengthy detour to reach her.
“I don’t know that I’ve seen another road in Hood County that’s in this kind of condition,” he said. “It's really a mess over there ... We pay the same taxes as everybody else in Hood County, and we just want roads that look like everybody else's; that's all we're asking.”
Precinct 4 Commissioner Dave Eagle explained that the subject of Lakeshore Drive has been raised multiple times. He emphasized that certain requirements must be met for the road to be accepted into the county maintenance system, so he arranged for Road Operations Director Donald Linney to inspect the road and provide an evaluation.
Linney noted that he visited Lakeshore Drive Oct. 10, and observed several significant issues, including numerous potholes and areas that have settled unevenly. He pointed out that some sections lack adequate drainage, likely due to past landslides affecting the hillside.
However, he explained that, based on the 2019 policy established by the Hood County Commissioners Court, the road does not currently meet the necessary criteria for acceptance into the county road system.
“Here’s the problem,” Precinct 1 Commissioner Kevin Andrews said. “I get a lot of calls on this situation too, especially being on the more rural part of the county. We have a lot of roads out here that aren't great, like private maintained roads, and for us to take all of these into the county system, that cost would be hundreds of millions of dollars to take these roads in, to fix them and bring them all up to spec. What we require is that if the road is brought to our standards, then we will adopt and take over maintenance.”
“There’s a precedence,” McDonnell added. “There's a precedence here that was done at the time we did the roads the first time, and to look into that precedent, it says that those roads are supposed to be maintained to where they're safe ... It is a safety issue, it's a health issue, and it's a problem that can be solved ... Eventually you're going to have something happen down there that needs to be addressed, so why not get ahead of it, and get them maintained now, to where we can travel around those roads?"
Linney elaborated that the situation regarding Lakeshore Drive had been discussed previously when Berry served as commissioner. He noted that the road's right-of-way is not very wide, which raised concerns among past commissioners if the county were to assume liability for the road.
Eagle also explained that for a road to be maintained by the county, a developer must first dedicate the road to the county, and then the county would need to formally accept it for maintenance. He emphasized that without this acceptance, the county cannot maintain the road.
He also noted that in the past, the county encountered issues where it accepted roads that were not built to the required specifications, which resulted in significant costs for taxpayers — a situation that has led to stricter guidelines since 2019.
Linney also noted that while the roads have been repaired and chip-sealed since 2019, the county still faces challenges in maintaining them due to limited resources for repairs.
“Since this is in my precinct, I’m going to try to help these folks out,” Eagle said, as he made a motion to accept Lakeshore Drive in Oak Trail Shores as a county-maintained road from Forrest Park to Canyon Trail.
However, Eagle’s motion died for lack of a second from his fellow commissioners, leaving both McDonnell and Rohde frustrated.
“What do we do when it's washed out?” McDonnell asked. “How do the emergency vehicles get to you when it’s washed out?”
“You’re going to have to fix it at some point,” Rohde said.
“Sorry, gentlemen,” Hood County Judge Ron Massingill said, as he added a suggestion that the homeowners association take on the responsibility of repairing the road.
