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Shag Road

To the Editor:

Shag Road is a Cottonwood Township gravel road about five miles in length, located south east of New Ulm in the valley between the Minnesota River and the railroad tracks. There is only two ways to access Shag Road, one is up the motorcycle club hill and intersects with Hwy 15 about half mile south of New Ulm.

I hear there are more than 50 mailbox/street address signs along its route a person can safely assume that each address houses on, two or more vehicles and their individual drivers that would travel Shag Rd daily for work, school shopping or pleasure. I would claim that Shag Rd Hill carried more traffic than any other gravel road in the township but gets the least amount of attention because no Jury Board member needs to use Shag Road for their daily travels.

About midway through last winter we had two “light” snow falls about an inch apiece and several days apart. the Cottonwood Town Board, in their wisdom, did not call out the snow plow because the wind blew all the roads clear of snow, ON THE HIGH GROUND, forgotten were the hill and valley roads. It didn’t take long for the volume of traffic on Shag Rd Hill to turn this snow into a hard crusted layer of compacted snow that covered the whole road surface. As long as the weather remained cold the road was marginally useable but every day that passed I expected to see some sand on the hill or the plow breaking up and scraping off the hard crust and exposing the gravel surface, but neither showed up.

Then came a shot of above freezing temperatures and the hill became super slick. About mid afternoon that day I turned off the dry Hwy 15 onto Shag Rd and soon realized that i could not stop and was in trouble. I shifted down, took a deep breath and place a firm grip on the steering wheel and proceeded down the hill. As I reached my driveway at the base of the hill I felt like I would slide right by it. I just touched the brake pedal and instantly I was crossways on the road with my front wheels inches from the ditch. Fortunately two young fellows whose car was already in the ditch could push the front of my van back to the center of the road and guide me into my driveway where I stayed the rest of the day.

I felt it was my duty to advert someone to get some sand on the hill or to plow the road before a serious pile up of vehicles occurred. I called the contractor who personally spread the sand but was told that they could not send out any equipment until they got an odder from a Jury Board member so he gave me a number to call. I called that number and got a recording “sorry we are not available but leave a number-etc.”

The high volume of heading home from school, work, shopping etc traffic was only an hour or two away from using the hill and things could really get messed up without some sand on it. In desperation I called the contractor back and told him that if he could not reach a board member, bill it to me. I was confident that a reasonable board would take care of the charges once they realized that the Township could be set up for liability law suits if they had not taken some action to insure that the hill was safe for traffic and that someone was injured in a pile up.

The little but too late sanding of the hill may have prevented a real major pile up but the pile up that did occur was a real mess and took into the night hours to clean it up.

The God that no one was crushed between vehicles as they piled up and no major damage claims have come forward, other wise the Cottonwood tax payers could have been on the “hook” large law suits.

I was right about forecasting a pile up but wrong about a reasonable Town Board. They point blank refused to pay for the sanding because I did not follow their “road policy.” They never did consult with some of the drivers as to the condition of the hill that afternoon.

The contractor followed my instructions and sent me a $270.00 bill for the sanding and threw in an extra $485.00 for scraping off the chewed up crusted compacted snow a few days later for a total of $755.00.

Finally in July the Board gave me a written list of reasons why they d not intend to pay the $755.00.

Reason #1 and I quote from the letter “The Brown County Sheriff did not order nor did her contact a Board member about a safety concern to sand the hill.”

Wow! I always understood that each Township inspected and maintained their own roads. I wonder if Sheriff Hoffman realizes that this inspection and reporting to the townships is part of his duties. I also wonder if he increased his budget request to the County Board to cover the cost of this added duty.

Reason #2 and I quote “calling a board member and leaving a message is not a legal binding conversation.”

Several months after the start of this debate I asked a board member to explain their road policy to me. I ask him if this policy is just verbal between board members or is it a written policy that was voted on by the citizens/recorded and published in the official news paper as required to make it legal. With out any answers he gave me his cellphone no. to call “NEXT TIME.”

A lot of time has been wasted debating this issue, valuable time that could have been used for more productive and beneficial purposes.

OBVIOUSLY the majority of the Town Board members do not combine commonsense with their reasoning when they make decisions.

In the real world the majority still rules.

When the sanding and plowing was first performed last December the cost to the tax payers would have been $755 but the cost continues to rise and now is approximately $850.

Elmer Rolloff

New Ulm

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