The forecast was for 18 inches of snow in Gallatin over the last weekend in January. On Hoefer Road, excavators and backhoes were close at hand, the plow truck was at the ready, and residents were hoping that the power would stay on.
Hoefer is a private road — one of many in Gallatin — meaning that no town or county employees will come to help when a storm hits. Instead, residents must band together to clear debris, manage drainage, and repair surfaces. Coordinating all those efforts — with the help of his neighbors in both morale and money — is Ben Maron, a Hoefer Road homeowner since 2002.
There are around 20 houses on Hoefer Road, which is roughly a mile long. At the southern end, a steep incline lets out onto County Route 2. It can become particularly treacherous when temperatures fall below freezing. “Almost everybody that’s lived up here has had that experience of tapping the brakes and sliding right out,” said Maron.
On private roads, residents can’t rely on the town’s professional road clearing capabilities. The biggest concern is safety. “After a storm, it can be a problem for emergency vehicles to get up here,” said one Hoefer Road resident, who preferred to remain anonymous. “I’ve had people drive into my culvert pipe and destroy their car — there were parts of their car in my yard.”
Maron has overseen the hiring of contractors not just to clear the road, but also to install drainage, build culverts, and improve the surface of what was originally sand and gravel, adding bankrun and crushed stone as a top layer. These capital improvements and emergency snow clearings all cost money — making Maron he de facto road tax collector and bookkeeper.
Each year, Hoefer Road residents voluntarily contribute upwards of $5,000 for the road’s maintenance and sanding. “We have a very high participation rate. It’s not 100%, but it’s very high,” said Maron on a freezing January afternoon, ahead of the hefty weekend snowstorm. “I abide by the rule that if somebody doesn’t pay, I’m sure it’s for some circumstance and it’s not my business as to why that circumstance exists.”
The road was once part of the 240-acre property of Charles Hoefer, a farmer. After he and his wife, Bertha, died, his son John inherited it. In 2016, Maron considered approaching John to see if he would donate the road to the town. However, the Town Board requested a survey to be arranged at the residents’ expense before they would agree to accept it as a donation. On top of legal fees, the cost of bringing the overall condition of the road up to par proved too onerous and expensive for Maron (who also runs his own stonework business Gallatin) and his neighbors.
Roughly 17% of Gallatin’s population lives on private roads. “People who end up on a private road, they’re private people,” said Benjamin Parish, who has property on another private road off of County Route 2. “[If it’s public] next thing you know, here comes the Google Street View car taking pictures of your house.” But for Parish, who never knew that the road was private before purchasing his home, the cons outweigh the pros. “We’ve spent a lot of money for repairs that are already almost degraded,” he said. “I would love to never have to think about it again.”
The debate over remaining private or becoming public can cause tension among neighbors. What if some houses are summer homes, whose owners never have to deal with snow emergencies? What if a resident lives on a fixed income, and can’t readily contribute to maintenance? What if takeover by the town results in significantly higher taxes? What if some neighbors are asked to contribute more than others? The situation can end in feelings of unfairness, as everyone’s individual situation becomes increasingly difficult to square.
Luckily for Hoefer Road residents, for the past few years Scott McCarthy has plowed the road for free. “You’ve got to keep up with the storm, every four or five inches you’re out there plowing,” he said. Before McCarthy volunteered, “sometimes we would not end up with enough money to pay the plow guy at the end of the year,” said Maron, who often made up the deficit himself.
Even with McCarthy’s pro bono plowing, the road requires year-round care. In 2012, during Hurricane Irene, hundreds of tons of sand, gravel, and stone, installed and paid for by the residents of Hoefer Road, was washed away. “The storm moved half of our road down the hill, it took us years to come back from,” said Maron. He recalled truckloads of the material being carted away by county trucks. “We’re one storm away from the whole road getting washed out.”
Some residents want to see Hoefer Road become a public road, which would not only alleviate safety concerns and free up people like McCarthy (perhaps he’d sleep better during snowstorms. “It gets stressful when it’s the middle of the night and it’s still snowing,” he said), but also encourage development. “People see a maintained road, they’re more likely to build a house on it,” said Maron. “I’ve actually privately been able to do that up here, just by putting effort into the road and maintaining it.” Since he moved to Hoefer Road in 2002, the number of houses has almost doubled.
Maron was recently elected as a member of the Gallatin Town Board, and has made the concerns of private road residents part of his agenda. “My experience of living [in Gallatin] is informed by living on a private road,” he said. “I can’t separate that out of who I am.” Still, Maron is careful to distinguish his duties as a board member from his personal advocacy, adding that addressing private roles is only one item in his agenda.
Maron is committed to working with the town to create a transparent path for residents to have their road taken over by the town — if both the homeowners and the town desire it. That process requires consensus among residents and investment from them to bring the road up to a standard that would qualify for the Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement Program (CHIPS), or agree to a special tax district to pay for the road’s improvement by the town.
“The improvement of the road to town standards for donation [to the town] would be then taxed to those landowners over a long period of time — typically 20 or 30 years,” said Gallatin Town Supervisor John Reilly. “For such a taxing district to be set up, there needs to be a desire for the majority of the residents to agree to such a district.” Sometimes, a clear majority isn’t there. “I have worked with several road groups over the years, but they could never get a majority to agree upon private contributions,” said Reilly. “I have a lot of sympathy for people who unknowingly buy houses on private roads not understanding that the town cannot plow and maintain them.”
Even so, Maron feels Hoefer Road’s continual improvement over the years makes it a prime candidate for takeover by the town. “We’ve invested probably $30,000 to $40,000 in getting this road up to the condition it’s in,” he said. “We would be a great point for the town to start and figure out a way to do this.”
Maron says his motivation is not financial, but rooted in safety and community, and that his goal is not the de-privatization of private roads, but for the path — hopefully paved, free of snow, and de-iced — to be clear.
“He’s looking for the best outcome,” said Parish. “He’s earned the right to raise this.”