JAY – Some residents of Canton Mountain Road spoke out against having the town turn the road to gravel Monday night.

A portion of the road, off Davenport Hill Road, is broken up tar after years of wear.

The Road Committee brought a proposal to selectmen in February to turn the road to gravel to make it more passable rather than paving it. Letters were sent to residents informing them about the possibility.

Highway Foreman John Johnson, a member of the Road Committee, said the town has 68 miles of roads and of that, 65 miles have some sort of covering. If the town put new surfaces on the latter, Johnson estimated it would cost about $13 million.

Part of the problem, Johnson said, is that the town has only been raising $150,000 a year for that type of road work. At that rate, he said, it would take 30 years to accomplish and by then, it would be time to turn around and start doing it again.

Selectman Warren Bryant said he received a call from a resident who remembers when the road was gravel, and it was a mess at times with potholes.

One of the advantages of turning the road to gravel, said Selectman Tom Goding, who is also on the Road Committee, is that a base would be built, a stabilizer cloth could be put down and the road reclaimed. If the town did put pavement on it, he said, it would have a good base underneath it.

Resident Robert LaBrecque asked what the difference in cost would be to turn it to gravel and tar it.

Johnson estimated it would be about $80,000 for gravel and about $175,000 to put 3 inches of tar on it.

“I hate to see it go to gravel because we’re going backwards,” LaBrecque said.

“I agree,” Johnson said. He didn’t like the idea either, he said, but there are too many miles of road, too little funding and costs of material continue to escalate.

“I’d rather let it turn on its own,” LaBrecque said, referring to naturally let the road go to dirt.

Johnson told selectmen they did not need to make a decision Monday but at some point, they need to give the Road Committee direction on what they want done.

“It needs a good public discussion,” Johnson said. “One mile of road is not going to fix this $13 million problem.”

The committee has recently been trying to do a set plan of roads each year. Last year, materials rose quickly and went so high selectmen put off spending a portion of the money to see if prices would come down.

Johnson put out bid packages on road surface materials last month and they are expected back mid-March.

Dennis Ward, another road resident, said he understood pavement is expensive, but asked if over time, would turning it back to gravel and maintaining it versus paving it balance out?

If its built right, Johnson said, it would take minimum maintenance annually.