To the Editor:Jennifer K. Rielly I would like to join

in questioning the wisdom of concluding paving all our roads would reduce the cost of maintaining them. As a resident of a dirt road for 39 years I have seen both the best and the worst they have to offer. There have been springs when my SUV had to work overtime to get to my driveway. Winters that the piles of snow alongside the road narrowed it to a single lane, but never once did the thought of asking to have the road paved cross my mind. I bought my house on a dirt road because I wanted to live on a dirt road. I suggest that anyone who doesn't want to live on a dirt road buy a house on a paved road. It is that simple!

Alberts Hill  a prime example of why not to pave a road, when I moved here it was a dirt road.

The construction of Eagle Hill required the portion from Walnut Tree Hill to the entrance of Eagle Hill paved. Today it is in such disrepair that rutted dirt would be an improvement, as the rutted asphalt is far less forgiving on a cars suspension. Sure the maintenance costs are lower for the town, they have done nothing to Alberts Hill since.

With the mess many of our currently paved roads such as Hanover above Echo Valley, The Boulevard Extension, large sections of Hattertown, Riverside, Walnut Tree Hill, Old Farm Hill, Butterfield, and many others, and a town management constrained by the ever increasing pressure by taxpayers to reduce or limit costs it would seem to me to be foolish to worsen the problem by creating more poorly paved and unmaintained roads. Once a month or soon after a storm the Volvo grader arrives and within a hour or so our road is back to normal, such can not be said with the pothole ridden stretches of asphalt that comprise the majority of the town maintained paved roads.

To invest in improving the existing connector roads and commuter routes that enable our residents to get to and from their jobs out of and in town should be our first priority. Only if those economically critical routes are satisfactorily upgraded and maintained should we spend a single minute conceptualizing or planning to destroy the rustic charm of our dirt roads.

Sincerely,

Lou Reda

17 Tamarack Road, Newtown         April 15, 2016