Overview:
Residents of King Road in Athol have requested that the town fill the potholes caused by snowplows last winter, citing a 2011 Town Meeting vote authorizing the town to remove snow and ice from private ways. The residents are not asking for the road to become a public way, but rather for the same services they have received since the late 1970s. The town's Department of Public Works has been particularly hard hit by maintenance requests, but the board has instructed the DPW to undertake minimum maintenance to ensure no damage is done to public safety vehicles responding to calls on King Road.
ATHOL – About two dozen King Road residents showed up at the Dec. 16 Selectboard meeting to address damage caused by snowplows last winter and whether the private road should become a public way.
The approximately mile-long street branches off of White Pond Road. It heads west and then runs north along the shores of Lake Rohunta and comes to a dead end across the lake from Horton Road in Orange.
King Road resident Andrea Gale acted as spokesperson for the group. Reading from correspondence provided to the board, Gale cited a 2011 Town Meeting vote authorizing the town to remove snow and ice from private ways, though it is not responsible for other road maintenance issues.
Gale said that last winter, the road was dug up from plowing being done too quickly, adding that the damage is the worst seen since the 1970s.
“We are not asking to have King Road become a public way/road,” she said. “We are only asking to have the same services since approximately 1977. The DPW has been filling the potholes since the late 1970s on a yearly basis.”
Setting the letter aside for a moment, Gale told the board, “There are disabled people, lower income people,” she said. “We cannot afford to fix the road ourselves. We’re not asking the town to re-do the road, we’re just asking the town to fill the potholes.”
Residents of King Road, she said, contributed more than $104,000 in property taxes to the town in FY25 while receiving no water or sewer service or trash pickup.
Board Chair Rebecca Bialecki said that the Department of Public Works “has been particularly hard hit by all the maintenance requests that they’ve gotten and they’re doing their best. So, don’t be mad at them if they don’t have a budget that accommodates them hiring more people, getting more stuff done.”
“The DPW has 100 miles of public roads to maintain; that’s what the budget is for,” said Town Manager Shaun Suhoki. “I’ve been out there (on King Road) and it’s rough.”
“I moved there [King Road] when I was 8 years old,” Ronald Akey told the board. “My father owned the road, made all the agreements with the town. I’ve lived there for 81 years and the town has always taken care of it. But all of a sudden you stopped doing everything.”
“So, our DPW does have responsibility to plow and salt and sand private ways, just like this, in order to accommodate emergency vehicles accessing those streets,” Bialecki said. “But because this is a private way, one option is for Mr. Akey to deed it to the town.”
“I’ll just donate it,” Akey interjected, prompting a bit of laughter.
“It might be a little more complicated than that,” Bialecki said. “Maybe I’ll have you speak to our attorney to see what that process looks like. But the town then has to accept it, and I think that’s a Town Meeting vote.”
In the meantime, the board instructed the DPW to undertake minimum maintenance to ensure no damage is done to public safety vehicles responding to calls on King Road.
“But they need to come up with a permanent solution,” assistant DPW Director Paul Raskevitz told the Athol Daily News. “So, right now the plan is for the lawyers to sit down to discuss the steps that need to be taken for the town to take over the road.”