It's a bumpy ride for Gila County supervisors

Resident fears paving will put Young on map

By Carolyn Wall
Connection Correspondent

The Gila County Supervisors adopted a resolution Tuesday, April 20, that will widen, upgrade and improve Baker Ranch Road from Young.

Steve Sanders, deputy director of public works for Gila County, told the board that the project involved taking a lot of property from people.

“They’re not all happy with what we’re going to do up there,” he said. “They’re never all happy in Young.”

The road improvement project was on the to-do list in 2002.

“It’s taken that long,” Sanders said.

The board also voted to review the proposed Eastern Arizona Counties Resource Advisory Committee (RAC) proposals and identified a priority that will also affect the 1,000 or more residents in Young.

A packet of three proposals will go before RAC, a U.S. Forest Services committee with the Department of Agriculture, on April 29. Heading the list will be the Young Road Maintenance Project to pave Young Road from the intersection of SR 260 to the intersection of Forest Road 33, providing an all-weather surface and increasing the level of safety and the road “rideability.”

The proposed project would result in some 3.2 miles of paved road surface.

The county does not plan to do any re-alignment of the roadway and will only change the surface of the road from gravel to asphalt.

Gila County will shape and crown the existing road, place an aggregate base course and then asphaltic concrete at an estimated cost of $735,000.

The project will be funded by forest fees that are awarded to rural counties through the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000, an act that awards counties money for forest land they’re not allowed to use, a reimbursement in lieu of the property taxes they would otherwise receive.

Other projects the county may consider are the bald eagle nest watch, Payson grasslands restoration, Ponderosa thinning, environmental education for children, and Mogollon Rim Chiricahua leopard frog management.

Supervisor Tommie Martin said, “I believe we need roads, then education.”

The requested RAC funds for projects in Gila County total $965,000. Current available funds are $509,000, but there are other funds that have not yet been awarded and the county may see an additional $126,000 or more. The amount that will be recommended is to be announced.

Gila County Board Chairman Shirley Dawson said, “Jake Flake lived in Young in 1962 and their number one objective was to improve Forest Road 512 (the Young Road). I appreciate the fact that these people in Young have a really challenging situation.”

Laverl Waite, a Young resident since 1998, said he hopes the county will go ahead with the proposal.

“I’ve been waiting for that for a long time. It is terrible. They went five miles from Young going out – that’s been about five years ago.”

Waite said there are numerous accidents at the curve going around by the post office at the Cherry Creek Store.

“I hope they do something with that road,” he said.

Another resident (who only wanted to be identified as Kathy) said the road improvement is a long time coming, but she has mixed feelings about the project.

“I really don’t want our community to be overrun with people,” she said. “If the road becomes paved, it would make it a lot easier for people to come down here. People from the Valley come in and want to impose neighborhood restrictions. That’s what I foresee if the road becomes paved. Young, itself, would lose its flavor. Paving the north road has been talked about since the late 40’s.”

Scott Trobaugh, another Young resident, said, “I don’t know what it would do to the community. I would prefer them to resurface the road – it’s just rock, especially the last three miles before the 260.”

As it is now, the road is a series of “washboards” with people going too fast for the conditions. People use the road as a playground for their quads and during snow removal season, park on the side of the road while their kids and dogs run in the road.

“There are all sorts of things going on,” Kathy said. “It’s a hard call. Other people in town say having the road paved would be a good thing. It would be easier on people’s vehicles.”