How much does it cost the Highway Dept to maintain the roads?

[farmall806]

Hi:

I hear that the Erie County Highway Department wants to turn over the maintanience(sp?) of the County roads to the individual Towns. Does anyone know what the Erie County Highway Department spends each year to maintain the County roads in Towns such as Holland and East Aurora?

Thanks,

[WNYresident]

YOu'll have to get the acutal maintance cost along with thier "third" party engineering cost too.

[concernedwnyer]

Hi:

I hear that the Erie County Highway Department wants to turn over the maintanience(sp?) of the County roads to the individual Towns. Does anyone know what the Erie County Highway Department spends each year to maintain the County roads in Towns such as Holland and East Aurora?

Thanks,

Wouldn't that cost more to bid out individual piece of road work???
What about quality of work??? It seems Genessee street is constantly being repaired after it has been repaired......

[farmall806]

I know. What I can't figure out, is how they came up with the cost estimates for each town that they want to charge for maintaining the county roads.

[tomac]

Wouldn't that cost more to bid out individual piece of road work???
What about quality of work??? It seems Genessee street is constantly being repaired after it has been repaired......

Genesee Street or Road?
Genesee Street (Route 33) is a state highway. Genesee Road (Collins, Concord and Sardinia) is a County Road.

[tomac]

Hi:

I hear that the Erie County Highway Department wants to turn over the maintanience(sp?) of the County roads to the individual Towns. Does anyone know what the Erie County Highway Department spends each year to maintain the County roads in Towns such as Holland and East Aurora?

Thanks,

You mean he's killing another service?????
Why doesn't he just close up the County and go home?

[CindyLocklear]

Apparently, there is no rhyme or reason as to why a whole lot of roads called County Roads, are county roads. Many do not cross municipal borders and are wholly contained within a town or city. Question is; should roads that dont exceed the borders of a local muni or that arent a primary connecting artery to an annexing road in a neighboring muni should stay as 'county roads'?

[concernedwnyer]

Genesee Street or Road?
Genesee Street (Route 33) is a state highway. Genesee Road (Collins, Concord and Sardinia) is a County Road.

Sorry, near the Airport then Dick road. They already did major construction on that road twice. This year is the third time.

[tomac]

Apparently, there is no rhyme or reason as to why a whole lot of roads called County Roads, are county roads. Many do not cross municipal borders and are wholly contained within a town or city. Question is; should roads that dont exceed the borders of a local muni or that arent a primary connecting artery to an annexing road in a neighboring muni should stay as 'county roads'?

Sorry Cindy, but there's plenty of reason and it all has to do with history.
At the begining of the 20th Century there were only State roads and Town Highways in Erie County. The County oversaw the purchasing of Rights-of-Way for the construction and alteration of these roads. Remember that at this time there were no cars, just horse-drawn vehicles and bicycles.
Around the time of the First World War, the then-County Engineer, a man named George C. Diehl decided that the County should take charge of a majority of the roads in the County. You might want to do a search here about this because Biker and I covered it extensively over the past four years. Anyway, he suggested to the towns that they turn over all the C.A.T.H. (County-Aided Town Highways) to the County for our maintenance rather than the County paying the towns to maintain them. He had ulterior motives that I don't have time to go into - look up the older exchanges or ask Biker.
Anyway, the Towns all jumped onto this bandwagon and in 1933, Erie County wound up with a highway system larger than many STATE highway systems.
Within ten years, all were reconstructed and blacktopped (many were hardpan aka dirt roads before this time). If our poor excuse of a County Executive wants to dump these back on the towns, he'd better be ready to pony up to the towns for their reconstruction, because that's how it was done before Diehl. Diehl reasoned that it would be cheaper to do it ourselves, and as he owned a blacktop batching plant, was also a major supplier who could guarentee a major profit for himself along the way. Before Diehl, the Board of Supervisors, something I'd rather see running the County BTW, cut a check for each individual road job.
Can your crowd work along those lines?
One system or twenty-seven systems, the choice is yours.....

[CindyLocklear]

Sorry Cindy, but there's plenty of reason and it all has to do with history.
At the begining of the 20th Century there were only State roads and Town Highways in Erie County. The County oversaw the purchasing of Rights-of-Way for the construction and alteration of these roads. Remember that at this time there were no cars, just horse-drawn vehicles and bicycles.
Around the time of the First World War, the then-County Engineer, a man named George C. Diehl decided that the County should take charge of a majority of the roads in the County. You might want to do a search here about this because Biker and I covered it extensively over the past four years. Anyway, he suggested to the towns that they turn over all the C.A.T.H. (County-Aided Town Highways) to the County for our maintenance rather than the County paying the towns to maintain them. He had ulterior motives that I don't have time to go into - look up the older exchanges or ask Biker.
Anyway, the Towns all jumped onto this bandwagon and in 1933, Erie County wound up with a highway system larger than many STATE highway systems.
Within ten years, all were reconstructed and blacktopped (many were hardpan aka dirt roads before this time). If our poor excuse of a County Executive wants to dump these back on the towns, he'd better be ready to pony up to the towns for their reconstruction, because that's how it was done before Diehl. Diehl reasoned that it would be cheaper to do it ourselves, and as he owned a blacktop batching plant, was also a major supplier who could guarentee a major profit for himself along the way. Before Diehl, the Board of Supervisors, something I'd rather see running the County BTW, cut a check for each individual road job.
Can your crowd work along those lines?
One system or twenty-seven systems, the choice is yours.....

With all that said; There is still no logic to concept of ownership of the road systems. In other words; an overarching theme of ratcheting benefit to burden via consensus and reason. Right?

[steven]

another erie county anomaly

[tomac]

With all that said; There is still no logic to concept of ownership of the road systems. In other words; an overarching theme of ratcheting benefit to burden via consensus and reason. Right?

Here's your logic, about ninety years ago one man decided to expand the highway system so that he could loot from the public till. Now we're stuck with this system.
If our fearless Il Duce wants to dump this system then he has to back to what was in place before it was changed. If he wants to change the system that is in place, then he'd better have something that he can chan ge this system to. He cannot just dump these roads on the towns, and expect everyone to pay the same level of taxes and get nothing in return.
As one town highway supervisor told me several years ago, if that happens, expect the towns to declare insolvency within a couple of weeks at most. I'd say it's only worse now.

[LaNdReW]

You mean he's killing another service?????
Why doesn't he just close up the County and go home?

DING DING DING!

We have a Winner!!

(as long as they stop collecting the taxes for the county as well)

[LaNdReW]

Apparently, there is no rhyme or reason as to why a whole lot of roads called County Roads, are county roads. Many do not cross municipal borders and are wholly contained within a town or city. Question is; should roads that dont exceed the borders of a local muni or that arent a primary connecting artery to an annexing road in a neighboring muni should stay as 'county roads'?

I think all roads in one town/village/etc. should be maintained by that municipality. Period.

There should be no financial incentive or subsidizing of rural areas.
(or subsidizing of city areas by rural areas)

So you say there is no way you can pay to plow the roads in the winter?? You cant make it into the city to work?? Um, MOVE TO THE CITY!!

[granpabob]

so the towns pay for their roads and the city pays for its roads where does the money come from. could the city or towns pay their share I doubt it so the only choice would be toll booths at each border you cross. want to go on vacation and it might cost twenty dollars in tolls just to reach the county line