ROADS UPDATES

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This winter has been a particularly rough one considering the amount and frequencies of snow storms and frigid weather delaying any kind of snow melt or drying period.  We’ve tried to keep ahead of most issues with the help of some of our local owners as well as our contracted road companies.  To help coordinate these efforts George Riojas, past president and roads chairman has offered to return as chairman.  George will concentrate our efforts on the northside of Howard Mesa and current board member Roger Inman will coordinate efforts on southside.

The good news is we’ve finally dried out enough to begin blading again and repairing some of the damage.  This will be a long process but we can do it and at an acceptable cost within our budget.  Don’t forget we still have monsoon season and winter again starting in October.  

As for the current work being done, we’re concentrating efforts on the common roads including Big Elk, Latigo and Jackrabbit and the northside of Howard Mesa.  Those roads have been severely neglected over the years but with increased residents and traffic they require serious attention.  As a result of this we have begun grading and laying cinders on Peregrine Lane.  Quivero, Bowline and Lariat have been graded and low spots subject to flooding will have cinders added.  The dangerous curve on Lariat will be widened as much as possible with cinders added.  New signs will be placed informing drivers of the dangerous curve and to slow to 5mph.  Condor Lane as well as Smoketree Rd and Prairie Grass Lane will be graded.  Roads in the 10 acre lots will be graded.  They will also be ditched as needed.  New signs posting new 25mph speed limits and caution signsin potential flooding areas warning drivers not to enter when flooded will be replaced.

We met with 4Hills to discuss the common roads of Lariat, Latigo and Big Elk. We determined we can accomplish what’s needed to grade and ditch these roads plus repair where necessary within our common roads budget.  We had a surplus of about $11K from fiscal 22/23 plus the new contributions of about $20K giving us a budget of $31K to accomplish what’s needed over the next 12 months.  

All roadwork has begun and we hope to be done with the special projects in the next few months.  After that we’ll examine what still needs to be done and at what cost and schedule.  There will be minimal interruption in regularly scheduled grading for all roads.  

I want to thank our wonderful residents who stood up to this historical winter and slowed down, drove only when necessary and approached this situation with extreme caution.  There were a few folks stuck in mud or snowed in but our community came together and helped when necessary.  We moved here because this is what we wanted, a quiet rural place with minimal interference, traffic and noise.  We want to keep it that way but it takes knowing our neighbors and being prepared for what nature can bring. As a reminder to those planning on moving here GET A 4 WHEEL DRIVE.

Thanks folks. Have a great day. 

Cliff Hall

President

roads.hmrpoa.com

On wet roads, drivers are advised to reduce speed by 1/3, and in snow by 1/2. Over-saturated half-frozen dirt roads should be considered both wet 

This past holiday weekend, HMR1 resident Brian Marsh, a retired general contractor, volunteered to inspect and lightly repair, as much as possible, the most challenging sections of Big Elk, Latigo and Jackrabbit in his own tractor to stem ongoing damage from daily driving and in preparation for the next snows.

Snow removal is scheduled Wed.-Fri., Feb. 22-25.

The common dirt roads remain over-saturated in large sections. Once the commons dry out enough, they can be fully graded, including ditch and culvert clean-up, etc., with an ETA start for commons mid-March, weather permitting, and continuing through May. Highest priority primary roads will also be addressed during that time.

The 2023 roads recovery and improvement plan draft 2 was formally discussed at the Feb. 16th HMR1 open board meeting and the Feb. 17th joint HMR1/4Hills Roads Committee meeting. Thank you to all, especially 4Hills POA board members Thad Johnson and Dennis Van Roekel, the Grand Canyon Railway, the Forest Service, Coconino County, and our local AZ Cattle Growers ranchers, including Perrin Ranch owner Mike Macauley, who provided a lot of great input and feedback based on long-time residence experience and wisdom gained from local roads maintenance and improvement lessons learned. We are all neighbors on adjacent land resources, and will go farther faster by working together to move forward on economical cattle, deer/elk and growing rural ranch-friendly roads maintenance and improvements.

We are all eager to start full roads recovery and improvements as soon as possible. 

Interim, there are things we can do as communities to continue to help, and there are more updates (in bold below) about what is being done: 

1. Please use caution when driving as large sections of dirt roads remain over-saturated. 

If possible, plan your trip in the morning and/or evening after the roads have refrozen. 

On wet roads, drivers are advised to reduce speed by 1/3, and in snow by 1/2. Over-saturated half-frozen dirt roads should be considered both wet and snowy conditions. 

Consider driving below the posted 25mph speed limit until roads recovery is possible. 

It is also advisable not to pass the vehicle in front of you. 

Also consider providing 2 additional car lengths to allow for sudden stops for obstacles such as cattle or stuck vehicles. 

If you see a neighbor stuck, please help them if you can. 

If you notice a particularly rough section, please contact your Roads Committee with details so we can address it asap. 

For more comprehensive common roads information, check out the 4Hills Roads pages at: https://fourhillsranchpoa.wordpress.com/roads/.

2. Please also try to limit delivery services to water and propane. Those deliveries are still being made, and we are told that two companies are focusing on deliveries to residents who have 10 percent or less in their tanks, and are clustering neighborhood deliveries in the mornings when the roads are still frozen to minimize roads damage. 

We can help all propane and water delivery companies by joining their keep-full programs vs. will-call, and by letting them know when our tanks are at 30%. 

Superior Propane in Williams and Grand Canyon Water delivery services will self-cluster their deliveries for us, filling a series of neighboring tanks according to need, geographical location and roads conditions. Superior also offers a referral bonus, so if you already use Superior, remember to tell them the name of the neighbor you referred.

3. Please try to use USPS vs UPS and FedEx. The series of continuous individual UPS and FedEx deliveries on over-saturated roads further compounds roads damage and needed repairs, and impacts water and propane deliveries. 

The semi-circle at the community mailboxes driveway was just graded, will have ongoing snow removal, and will be cindered asap, to ensure easy access by package delivery trucks and residents regardless of weather.

New USPS Postmaster Mitch Stoffel  has addressed last Saturday's USPS package delivery hiccup, and guarantees all packages that will fit in USPS parcel lockers will be delivered without holds and delays. Larger USPS packages that will not fit in our community parcel lockers can be picked up at the Williams Post Office M-F between 8:30am-3:30pm.

Additional USPS community mailbox lockers are planned for installation, ETA mid-March. These are Lifetime Lockers assigned to full-time resident properties for a one-time $75 fee. Contact Cliff Hall for HMR1 and Thad Johnson at 4Hills when you are living here full time and need a USPS Lifetime Locker/mailbox. Lifetime Lockers use your residential property address, not the Lifetime Locker box #.

If your property address is not yet recognized by your bank, Amazon, etc., please contact USPS National to have them work with our Williams postmaster to add your property address to the USPS database of verified addresses that feeds all other national databases. This process can take 3-6 months, depending when each e-commerce company refreshes its own database. Maps such as Google's take up to a year or more to update, making it improbable for AAA and other roadside service/insurance companies to find you. In Williams, Sandoval's can find you, as can Murphy's in Flagstaff. They will initiate calls to AAA, USAA, etc., if you call Sandoval's and Murphy's first/directly.

To streamline commercial package deliveries, we have asked Amazon, UPS and FedEx about the potential to install lockboxes at the expanding community mailboxes at the main entrance, ETA start mid-March, weather permitting. Thank you to HMR1 resident Danny Gonzales who works for UPS and volunteers for our local High Country Fire Department, for getting that initiative rolling faster.

Roads Committee 

roads.hmrpoa.com

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