By Mary Alice Murphy

Early in 2016, an LS Mesa resident and spokesman, Capt. Wout Vantellingen, contacted the Grant County Road Department Superintendent Earl Moore with concerns about the safety of a county-maintained road.

Vantellingen explained that, after heavy rains and especially after decent snow falls, large parts of the Bear Mountain Road turn into a mud road where the mud can be as much as a foot deep. And it is impossible to turn off it. An ambulance without four-wheel five would not be able to come up the road.

"We wanted some structural improvements to our section of Bear Mountain Road," Vantellingen told the Beat. "We were told that if the neighbors could come up with the road material, which is base course, the Road Department would use its equipment to install it."

When Vantelligen began a process to lease a materials pit, the Road Department said it had found enough money to cap three miles of the five-to-six-mile portion of the road on top of the mesa.

About 40 people are permanent residents on LS Mesa.

Vantellingen talked to neighbors and they agreed to pay for an additional $6,000 worth of material, enough for one mile, in addition to the three miles promised. He and Moore went over the road and determined where the base course needed to be installed.

Nothing happened for a year, because the department had other commitments, Vantellingen was told.

When the department returned to put in material, they began to install the material in a different place, instead of the parts that had previously been chosen. The department personnel worked for a while and left and came back months later and left again.

When Vantellingen again contacted Moore to find out when the project would be completed, Moore told him it was a one-off deal and that 1 ¼ miles had been completed at a cost of more than $29,000.

Vantellingen said the agreement had been for three miles at $6,000 for each mile of material, which the county would provide and install with its equipment. However, Fowler Brothers did the work. Vantelingen questioned where the extra money went, especially since only 1 ¼ miles had been completed.

He alleges that where the material was placed was not where it was needed. "Although what they did is in good shape, it benefits only a very few of the residents."

In a meeting with the County Manager Charlene Webb, he said she kept apologizing and told him the money used for the project was state funding that had to be used in that fiscal year or would be lost to the county.

"The consensus of the Road Department and the county manager seems to be that enough money has been spent on Bear Mountain Road, so it is now on the back burner for future projects," Vantellingen said. "It seems the spending of the money is the excuse, not what was achieved."

He said it seems to be a common misconception that people that live on LS Mesa know what they were getting themselves into when they moved there. "That is not true. Maybe a few knew, because they are from the area. Most of the people that moved here from out-of-state had no clue, and the sellers did not disclose the issues with the road."

Another concern for Vantellingen is that the county approved a Pinos Altos Volunteer Fire Department substation on LS Mesa. It is now built and awaiting receipt of an older used engine for its firefighting purposes. Vantellingen said parts of the road are still so bad that it will not be good for the engine nor for those depending on rapid deployment of the engine in case of fire, structural or wildland.

Vantellingen simply wants the three miles that he and the Road Department determined were most critically in need of improvement with base course, to be completed for the safety of the residents, as well as the extra mile the residents were willing to fund. "The county just left and did not even bother to talk about the $6,000 for the extra mile."

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