Crews assigned to repair Bordeaux Mountain Road are finding it a difficult task, according to Ira Wade, Public Works assistant commissioner for St. John. The work began a month ago, he said, but equipment failures have hampered the removal of boulders and grading of the unpaved public road.
"We're making progress," Wade said, "cutting, filling, making repairs on some of the graded areas." The worst problems are at the western end of the road, he noted.
Improvements can't come too soon for St. John residents who must rely on the road for access to and from where they live.
Lew Henley, owner of Lew Henley's Sewage Disposal, resides at the western end. Because of its deteriorated condition, he says, "I had to buy a new truck lately" to replace the 1995 Dodge 250 with 4-wheel drive that he had been driving. "I thought it was tough enough for Bordeaux Mountain, but it did me in," he said. "So now I got a Ford 250, and I'll see how that that can take it."
Penny Garrett, who has been house-sitting on Bordeaux for long-time resident Jo Sterling, said the section she travels "is not so bad" as other parts of the road. "They have some tractors up here, and it looks like they plowed it," she said, "but it's starting to get bad again."
After area residents complained of the road's precarious condition at a public hearing in January, Public Works Commissioner Harold Thompson said he would try to get repairs made. St. John administrator Julien Harley echoed the residents' concerns after a site visit, saying heavy rains had caused severe erosion and left portions of the road in a dangerous state.
Thompson made his pledge without being able to identify funding for the road improvements at the time. Now, Wade says, half a million dollars has come through in the form of road funds approved some time ago. "It was an appropriation that the Legislature did," the assistant commissioner said. "Money was recently released to each island."
Wade said the allocation will be used to make repairs throughout St. John — to the Bordeaux Mountain, Centerline, Gifft Hill and Pastory Roads and to Hill Street by the Julius E. Sprauve School.
Thompson had said he would try to reprogram a portion of the million dollars earmarked for improvements to Johns Folly Road (Route 107) now scheduled to begin in April. The redirected funds will be used to improve the western section of the Bordeaux road, Wade said.
Henley said he can see that the Public Works is trying to improve the road. "I know that the government is in bad shape, but I'm trying to be patient," he said.
