Nothing has been done about this neighborhood in decades. I'm sick of seeing people hurt, cars damaged, animals even stumbling over. WE NEED HELP HERE. I will leave this issue open until real help happens. No more "patch" jops that rip right up again.

I will post pictures until an improvement is made.

More

More

ALL these holes and even worse, the PATCH JOBS are destroying cars, hurting people that step in them during rainy days... I've talked to neighbors including a Natick cop and they all agree that this is WRONG.

Another

We are aware of the condition we will fix the holes and that is all we can do !

NOT good enough. Patch work is NOT fixing the roads. The patch jobs are so overlapped from YEARS of it being done that that too is a safety hazard.

Agreed. This NEEDS to be done. My daughter broke her nose falling while on her scooter. It was from the patch work and not the pot holes though.

Dartmouth Street and other surrounding roads are the worst I have seen in Natick. This area is hazardous to people, animals and vehicles. These roads need to be recognized as town roads, included in and maintained by the town repaving plans. Why are the residents being punished for living in this area? The homeowners are taxpayers and regardless of how this area was "labeled" in the past it's time the "rules" were changed.

Some of these photos are 4 years old with NO improvement or even WORSE care

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This is an embarrassment and an insult to the amazing people living in this area.

Dartmouth Street and other surrounding roads are the worst I have seen in Natick. This area is hazardous to people, animals and vehicles. These roads need to be recognized as town roads, included in and maintained by the town repaving plans. Why are the residents being punished for living in this area? The homeowners are taxpayers and regardless of how this area was "labeled" in the past it's time the "rules" were changed. Why do you say "we will fix the holes and that is all we can do!" What does that mean and what has to happen to make the change?

I grew up in this neighborhood, and it breaks my heart that I have never seen a decent repair done. Even the patch work has been done haphazardly, and at this point it has become a joke. These roads are not safe, especially for pedestrians, and ESPECIALLY for anyone's children who walk to either the elementary or middle schools. We are lucky we don't end up buried every winter, or that an ambulance/fire truck has gotten stuck trying to make it up these roads in an emergency. I have personally shoveled out the end of my street numerous times to keep cars from getting stuck since the plows only plow for whatever "clearance" means to them. I am lucky to live in a neighborhood where neighbors care and work together, and I wish the town could do the same for us.

These are all just from the same couple roads

Appalling. This neighborhood is full of kids that should be able to play and get to school safely.

The roads are unaccepted. The town has no obligation to pave them.

Then why are we paying the same taxes as everyone else?

The Natick Police even agree on this matter! It's dangerous for them as well!

And just like they said, it's an EXCUSE. We pay our taxes too yet our property value is lower due to the state of these roads. Some of the pot holes created from the patch jobs are 5-6 inches deep.

If these roads are "private" and "unaccepted" then who "owns" them and what needs to be done to have them be recognized (hence, maintained) by the town? Someone must have answers.

This neighborhood is awful for driving, biking, walking, LIVING ON. We need answers and no more awful patch jobs. Ann and Shannon are right. We pay the same taxes but our streets are dangerous. My kid stepped in a flooded pothole that was at least 8 inches deep. Unacceptable. I did the same thing Shannon did and got pictures from google maps. NOTHING has changed in the years we've been here since these pictures were taken. What's being done????

We live off this road and I added a click fix a few weeks ago and was told our road is unacceptable and couldn't be replaved only patched. Even if that is so make them larger and smoother so we don't need to get an alignment every week! This road is horrible and nothing is being done! The holes keep getting bigger and the old patches just get ripped up by the plows every year. And that's if they do a decent plow job. (But that's a whole different issue)

Natick2010 is right. The patch jobs are a waste of money, man hours, and everyone's time. I saw at least 10 potholes that were up to 8 inches deep easily while walking last night. It makes me afraid to walk my dog at night.

Everyone feel free to post whatever you have to show the dangers of these roads. I'm lucky my car didn't stall in some of those puddles.

.

Hopefully the video loads.

Here is the link in case it didn't load: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfjtAt9ts4M

Does anyone have the "official" notice from the town as to why they can only patch and not replace the roads? I have read the reference a few times in these comments but never read it myself.

Hi Aaron. I've been to town hall a number of times and they say things like how we'd all have to pay about $6,000 EACH to have it down. Blocks would have to be put into the sides of the road which would cut off people's yards by about a foot (big deal).

Pretty much, it's privately owned, but if we all magically find $6,000 lying around, they'll do something. Please feel free to message me for more details. This neighborhood used to be a camp site (over 60 years ago) and they use that as an excuse as to why our roads are "unaccepted" even though some are accepted for a few hundred feet and then stop! This is completely true and you can tell just by driving the roads which ones the town takes better care of.

Oh, and just while driving today, I hit a pothole so bad that the check engine light came on in my car and I failed inspection! True story! This has been seriously awful for everyone. We pay the same taxes but our roads are awful and it brings down the value of some of the beautiful homes for sale.

this town is always on the defensive its time we get together and hire somebody to take this to the next level and expose them to the news channels because this is degrading for us to be talking about this I have been in this town from 1989 and nothing has changed we pay big taxes and they don't care

Rock on, g fennelly! Feel free to message me to see what we can do!

I have a house on lake winni which I have had since 21 years ago so my family has been going to so we only live here Monday to Friday afternoon ;and are gone for weekends but if I lived here year round I would be beside my self this neighborhood is deplorable as far as the roads are concerned I drive cadillacs ,corvettes,harleys, and you have to drive low and slow so you don't damage them I have been a union rep for years if you want to bring the town to a meeting I am willing to be there please contact me because this wound me up , you town people who are new to the town deserve better and these deplorable conditions of the roads that your family ,friends,or coworkers have to see is unacceptable keep the pressure on the town because they are hoping u go away

I'd be very interested in getting this to town hall. I've been putting up the flyers in the neighborhood and today, my "check engine" light came on after hitting a pot hole. It must have knocked something loose. My mum also is friends with a local news reporter so if you'd like to work with me, we might be able to get this on tv since we've been ignored so long. Let me know if you know any other neighbors willing to meet up to get this going. Something big needs to happen and it looks like we'll have to work together against the town. I have at least 5 people willing to meet up to discuss options. If you get anyone, please message me and we can try to get a group!

We tried this 27 years ago when we first moved here and got the same lame excuse....roads are unaccepted....blah, blah, blah. We were also told that our road was unsafe for the US Postal Service so our mailboxes have to be at the end. Well, guess what? They are using our road, cutting through it to get to the other side of the neighborhood. I get that the roads are "unaccepted" and that we would lose some frontage b/c the streets have to be such and such width etc. - BUT why do we have to pay the same taxes?? Do an evaluation, figure out the cost and take it out your CAPITAL repair budget. It will serve to bring up property values, etc. I bet if one of the selectman or other such higher ups lived in this neighborhood, than something would be done!!!

I was told that Evergreen and some of the other roads are state owned. If that is true, has anyone tried contacting Mass state?

Natick2001, I have not. I know some roads are "approved" only in certain spots. Evergreen on the other side of the road IS approved for instance.

I helped defeat the MA automatic gastax by collecting signatures, marching and holding signs, etc. I also helped to unseat a really longstanding State Senator (another state), so looks like I need to learn a whole lot more about Natick and how things work.
I would love to help. If we need to canvas Town hall or whatever would be effective let me know. I'll hold signs or peacefully protest. Looks like we missed the April town meeting. If we need an old fashion petition I'll help get signatures -whatever. I was thinking about this myself, because this road killed my last car, which I needed to keep 2 more years. The road gave me no choice. Can we get on the Town Meeting Agenda? I have had a medical problem, but now that I'm getting better so I can put some time and effort into this.

That's fantastic Connie. I'm the one that's been hanging up signs, and if you'd like some more, please send me a message. Also, there's going to be a HUGE neighborhood yard sale in the University Drive neighborhood next week I believe and I'd be happy to meet up there since it's off the main road and hand out flyers and get some signs out.

My health is failing and I will be going to Germany for treatment soon so I will do all it takes until I'm away.

I will help any way you need me to to get these roads fixed! It's dangerous and damaging our cars! Thank you for hanging the signs and taking the initiative.

That road looks awful, Nancy. They are PATCHING right now as we speak. Another waste of our tax dollars at work to help further destroy our cars! Nancy, please message me about getting a group together and how and when it can be done. This is a disgrace and makes me embarrassed to tell people the town I live in.

Anyone who needs to contact me can write to Shannon at yuyufan43@yahoo.com. Just please make the heading "Neighborhood Roads". Thank you everyone. Let's show the town we're done with this nonsense.

They are doing such a bad job. With all the patches we have on the road we could have paved it six times already. It has to be the world Bumpiest road. NOT OK!!!!

THANKS FOR WORSENING OUR ROADS TODAY! We will not stop until this is PROPERLY dealt with. No more patch jobs that go back decades. No more kids getting injured, handicapped people afraid to walk, damage to cars, and people falling. This is a pathetic showing, Town of Natick.

Ackerley, you make a wonderful point. I'd love to get people interested in bringing this up at town hall together. Please message me if you and people you may know will be interested. Today, my dog had 10 stitches to re-attach her paw pad that tore when she stepped in a pot hole. I wish I was kidding but the neighbors and $565 medical bill will tell you otherwise. I'm handicapped from the waste down and now my service dog is injured because of these roads so I can't walk either for a while. It's a disgrace. You should hear how they responded to the dog up the road that attacked us 3 times. Dog was STILL out there today and I accidentally almost ran him over with my car since the cops have still not made the owners do anything despite having a front electric fence and a fully closed in backyard. This is a wonderful neighborhood being torn apart by the incompetence of the town and the way they treat us. I feel like my dogs medical bills should be reimbursed since none of this would have happened if the town did anything. I might just bring the proof (bloody paw prints at the location and all the surgery bills) to town hall and demand something be done.

Aaron asked why the town can't fix unaccepted roadways. The reason has to do with state law.

The Town is prevented from expended public funds on its repair (MGL c.84 Section 23).

https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXIV/Chapter84/Section23

However, since Natick adopted the MGL that enables us to plow unaccepted ways (MGL c. 40 Section 6C) we do chose to perform limited repairs to these sort of roadways.

https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleVII/Chapter40/Section6C

There is a betterment process through which you can, as a neighborhood, fund the improvement of the roadway to bring it to town standards so that the town could then vote (Town Meeting) to accept the roadway. Once that is done, public funds could be used for the upkeep of the road.

For completeness, here is info on the Betterment concept:

http://www.natickma.gov/1057/Article-70---Public-Works-Regulations

Section 6 Betterments
Whenever betterments are assessed in connection with a public way, the entire cost of the construction of streets on said ways shall be assessed to the abutters and one-half (1/2) of the costs of construction of sidewalks shall be assessed to the abutters, provided, however, that this section shall not apply to a subdivision of land under Section 81 of Chapter 41 of the General Laws as amended.

The Director of Public Works may make repairs to private ways providing that an Annual or Special Town Meeting determines that the repairs are required by public necessity and convenience and a majority of the abutters petition for such repairs to be made and that the way has been open to public use for a period of six (6) years. Such repairs shall include the installation and construction of drainage if necessary, and the filling of holes in the sub-surface of such ways and repairs to the surface materials thereof. Materials for such repairs shall, where practical, be the same as or similar to those used for existing surfaces of such ways but may include surfacing the ways with bituminous materials including but not limited to bituminous concrete.

The Town Administrator shall assess betterments upon the owners of estates which derive particular advantage from the making of such repairs on any such private way. Such assessment shall be a sum equal, in the aggregate, to the total cost of such repairs and, in the case of each such estate, in proportion to the frontage thereof on such way. Except as otherwise provided, the provisions of Chapter Eighty relating to public improvements and assessments thereof shall apply to repairs to private ways ordered to be made under this section; provided that no assessment amounting to less than twenty-five dollars ($25.00) shall be apportioned and no assessment may be apportioned into more than ten (10) portions.

The Town shall not be liable on account of any damage caused by such repairs.

Finally, way up the thread someone asked about bringing this to Town Meeting. Any resident of the Town of Natick can request that a warrant article be added to the Town Meeting Warrant. All they need to do is write up the article and get 10 other residents to sign on to the idea on the paperwork.

If someone is planning to do this, I highly recommend finding someone with experience writing Town Meeting articles so that the wording is precise and the Town Moderator (Frank Foss) will not find the article out of scope.

It seems unlikely that TM would accept a road that is currently unaccepted that hasn't first been brought up to the Town's standards through a betterment, but that's my personal opinion and I certainly don't speak for Town Meeting (although I am a TM member from Precinct 8). Town Meeting vote things however they choose to, as a body.

I know someone who can write an article, if this is the direction we take.

I have a few questions regarding my "private" road. If someone was injured in the gigantic pothole in front of my house am I liable for that? If I were to pay to improve my road, are my neighbors and myself allowed to block public access to my road? Why wont the town take over the land that the road is on by emminant domain? Why are these roads even considered "never accepted" instead of grandfathered into the town's responsibility? Isn't this one of the oldest neighborhoods in natick? None of the state laws make sense for our neighborhood...all they seem to do is allow the towns to save money by avoiding the responsibility of upkeeping them. From what I'm reading, It will be close to impossible to get these roads accepted and properly repaired. We are not the first people to have this problem....and it seems like unless we have 100% agreement from everyone in the neighborhood absolutely nothing can happen.

A disclaimer. I am not a lawyer, and I don't play one on TV. Even though I do serve the Town on the Planning Board and Town Meeting the opinions I express here are mine alone and do not represent the Town. That is, I am not speaking for the Town, nor the Planning Board, nor Town Meeting, nor anyone or anything other then myself. My opinions and answers may also be completely wrong (but as Monk said, I don't think so).

I think that except when the road you are driving on is explicitly a private way (such as a driveway or an access road that belongs to an individual or corporation) you are always driving at risk. If you are driving on an accepted roadway and you hit a pothole and damage your car, I don't believe that the Town is liable, unless you can prove that they'd been told about the problem and had been intentionally negligent in not repairing it. I went through this personally in Newton a while back, where I lost a tire to a pothole and they told me I was out-of-luck.

And no, you can't block your road, because even though it may not be an accepted roadway, it is a public way, and there are laws about blocking public ways. Even blocking a road for a "block party" as many neighborhoods do in the summertime requires the permission of the Board of Selectmen.

I can't answer any questions about why the Town won't accept your road, but I'm going to GUESS that it is because the road was never built to town standards, or it was and no one put it up for acceptance at the time and now the standards have changed. Really, I have no idea. That's a question for the DPW.

Age has nothing to do with whether a road is accepted or not. The Town just recently (within the last few years) worked to get access to Main St. (the piece between the RR bridge and 135) so that it could be brought up to town standards and accepted. It's hard to imagine a road much older than that piece of Main St.

To do the betterment, you don't need 100% agreement. As the bylaw states, you need a majority of the abutters to petition for the betterment, so that's 50% plus 1. As to what that would cost, it would be a fairly simple matter of approaching the DPW and asking them to let you know. They'll work up an estimate and can work with the Town Administration to understand what the cost would be per abutter. My understanding is that the betterment can be paid over multiple years (my brain remembers 20 but that could be wrong.)

The Town has done a study of unaccepted roads and the cost to bring them up to acceptance levels, and you can find it here:

http://natickma.gov/DocumentCenter/Home/View/5086

There is also a listing of accepted and unaccepted roadways:

http://natickma.gov/DocumentCenter/Home/View/3362

Thank you Glen for your Help in finding and explaining this information. If I read the information right, the Town Assessors will determine the abutters whom benefit from the project (as to split the cost among). I wasn't able to find if when they did the Evergreen study if they had already determined the number of abutters already or if there is a way before we go through the process of writing a TM article, who/how many that would be.

Just a rough guesses of about 100 abetters, if your thought of being able to spread the cost over 20 years, it looks like it would be about $315/year per abbuter or an additional $79 a Tax Cycle.

Aaron, if it gets our roads PAVED instead of PATCHED, I would personally be fine with an extra $75 although I was told by town hall that the neighbors could spend up to $6,000 each out of pocket. That's what's making this so difficult is that they don't listen (streets were PATCHED POORLY yesterday) and when they do listen, it's always mixed up and convoluted answers. I will be heading for Germany soon for a cancer treatment facility but you and Nancy and Ackerley sound very capable and I truly hope you guys can work together to keep the momentum working. I have all the yellow flyers and a map of their location if someone is interested in changing them (I'm bed ridden and can't). If anyone's interested in continuing while I'm in treatment, please please please keep it up for the sake of this neighborhood.

My e-mail is yuyufan43@yahoo.com and just post the heading as "Neighborhood Flyers"). My map even has a driving route to cover the neighborhood in about 8 minutes.

Aaron:

I would say that the first step is to reach out to the Town's DPW Engineering department (http://natickma.gov/259/Engineering-Division) and tell them that you're interested in determining the cost of a betterment. Let them know what road you live on, and they'll collect the relevant information.

Regarding a TM article, I think (my opinion) that the only thing you'd be able to ask TM is for the Town to accept the roadway in the current condition. Town Meeting can't take any action that would violate MGL and if it did the Attorney General's office would void the action. You likely couldn't ask TM to fund the repaving of the road, for example. So, you'd be asking the Town to accept the roadway in the current condition. I don't want to discourage anyone from exercising their rights as citizens of Natick, but I personally feel that would be unlikely to succeed.

I think Aaron, if enough people went and we got pictures, different statements, car repair bills, and medical bills if anyone's been injured, we might have a shot at having town hall listen. It's sad that small time government gets so incredibly big headed and corrupt but your information is valuable and may really end up helping us! Thank you!

Glen

Thank you again for helping, this is obviously not a clear issue so you're assistance is really appreciated. If I'm understanding you correctly, we can go to TM and ask them to accept the road(s) in their current state. I don't think this violates https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXIV/Chapter84/Section23 because this specifically says "which has not become a public way..." The Area has been identified as a Public Way for more then 6 years as seen in section 6 here: http://www.natickma.gov/1057/Article-70---Public-Works-Regulations.

IF (and its a big IF) TM agree's to accept the road(s) in their current state (tagged as unacceptable) then the Town has the ability to fund the repaving of those roads? If TM Doesn't accept the roads, we can petition for betterment of those roads to get them to acceptable level at the cost to the abbuters.

I hope I'm understanding the steps correctly.

Thanks

When we are discussing Evergreen, does that include the surrounding roads? Or would I need to make a seperate request for determining the cost of a betterment to the DPW for Crest Road?

I just found this:

http://natickma.gov/DocumentCenter/Home/View/5089

Aaron:

You understood what I wrote perfectly. Perhaps you understated my feeling about what Town Meeting would do, but perhaps I did as well. It's never a waste of time to petition the Government, although reality might suggest that you pursue other options simultaneously. Town Meeting won't meet again until the fall. Efforts in parallel rather than serial would be logical.

Nancy:

Every road is different. You can check the list of roads that I posted yesterday to see if your road is accepted or unaccepted. If unaccepted, the process would be the same. The DPW would figure out the costs and ask about a betterment, and if 50% +1 of the abutters on that road agree the project could move forward.

Our neighborhood should not have to pay to have Evergreen Rd fixed. We all pay as much in taxes as everyone else in Natick. About 40 years ago a man in the neighborhood who lived on Magnolia Rd - last name was Aucoin walked around with a partition to fix the neighborhood Roads. That was the last time these roads were done. If its going to cost each of us 6000.00 dollars then I say we hire a good lawyer to fight the town for new roads or to fight to lower our taxes in this neighborhood. This is insane since they had a new HighSchool, senior center, fire station and a police station done. We all paid the taxes for that. Really!! Any way I can help, please let me know. rkelly112@hotmail.com- Robin

Hi Robin, I could use someone to replace flyers. I have a map of the location, the flyers cut, and a good driving map. I've been incredibly sick for a number of days but if you can spare the 10 minutes to check on them and change any that need to be changed, just message me at yuyufan43@yahoo.com. I can leave everything out for you if that helps. I'm glad other's are working for this since I think I've done all I can at this point with my health being so bad.

I've lived here for 20 plus years and have had to replace my car's struts twice. While I have been told my taxes are lower to reflect the substandard road conditions, I do not think this is the case--I do not see a credit on my tax bill indicating such, for instance. I read in the Natick Post years ago that there are 40 miles of unaccepted road in Natick---I think it reflects poorly on the town that they allow such a state of affairs to exist. While 60 years ago these neighborhoods may have been only seasonal cottages, today they are year round homes to tax paying residents.

I just want to voice my support for the work everyone is putting into this and the help from Glen. I agree that we may want to try a few approaches in parallel. I emailed the engineering division to get more info about the betterment process for Crest Rd.

I am happy to help any way I can. Contact me at eric.biagiotti at gmail dot com. Also, if you end up with large pieces of asphalt on your property dug up from the snow plows, call the DPW and they will pick it up.

Just an fyi to all. We need to also spread the word by mouth when talking to our neighbors. I noticed that alot of people don't even bother looking at the flyers when going by that Shannon has put up. If someone would like to get name and addresses from the town hall. I would be more then happy to walk around with the partition and ask for Signatures if you all think this is the route we need to go.

Robin, I think that sounds like a wonderful idea. I took a turn for the worse after seeing you last so unfortunately, I'll have to take things easy for a bit but I know Maisie might be interested in helping you. I'll see what she can do.

Shannon- Sounds good. Feel better!

Hi everyone,

Glad to see that people are taking the initiative. I live on Birch Road and have a year and a half old daughter and a little boy on the way. The conditions of the roads are absolutely pathetic and I'm sick of seeing my daughter trip and fall every time we take a family walk. I'm happy to help in whatever way necessary. Thank you to everyone who has contributed their sentiments.

Hi Steve! You can contact anyone who's left their e-mails here although I have become incredibly ill and will be heading to Germany, so I'll be continuing the fight for our neighborhood there. Everyone else can diffidently help! We're all angry pros when it comes to this neighborhood and how everyone is so good and this is such a good community that deserves safe roads!

Q: How do you patch a pothole on a dirt road with asphalt?

A: town of natick: you do it anyways.

They have patched the corner of evergreen and birch before winter and it just comes up on the rain and snow. And today they have done it again. Who thinks patching a dirt hole is going to last?!

They are probably making and edge so that when we regrade the road (With Gravel)it will but up to it.

Thank you Shannon, and well wishes for a speedy recovery. For anyone who is active on this chain, I'm happy to help. Please feel free to respond about any next steps or suggestions on how to best proceed.

years ago I passed a petition around to improve drainage. I also had a selectman's ear about the massive puddles. Probably we would have to all go to a meeting to get any attention.....

An old timer on dartmouth st said that years ago they all pitched in and had the road paved properly. Then the town ripped it all up to install water lines. They broke the crown of the road, said they'd be back to fix it and never did....

They are NOT doing the edge. This is a few feet in and they are not even flat they are wasting asphalt is what they are doing.

I am in the process of setting up an appointment to talk to John Digiacomo (Assistant Town Engineer) to discuss the betterment process for Crest Rd. Looks like we will be meeting soon after 5/17. Here are a few things I plan on asking about:

- Do we pay less in taxes if we live on an unaccepted road / who do I ask to find out.
- How much per home owner would betterment cost. I believe they would have to take a look at the road and it is calculated by individual property frontage, but I guess I'd be asking about getting the process started for estimates.
- Can the cost be covered by the city/subsidized/amortized. I understand there are state laws about cities and towns using funds to pay for unaccepted roads, but I'll see what additional info I can get.
- What can we do to ensure the Town Meeting will accept our road if we go through and complete the betterment process.

While this is specific to Crest Rd, please let me know if you have any additional questions you'd like me to ask him. Post them here or email me at eric.biagiotti@gmail.com. I'll also be asking about timing, how long all this takes, etc. and will post everything I find out here.

Eric

Hi Eric,

Thank you for taking the initiative. I would possibly request that since Evergreen is the Main Artery into the neighborhood, if you could ask about Evergreen as well as Crest Rd if you wouldn't mind.

Thank you

Sure thing Aaron, I plan on bringing up the whole neighborhood. I think they do betterment on a road by road basis, and I'm not sure if I can get that started for a road I don't live on, or if I just need signatures...but I'll let you all know either way.

Eric - much appreciated.

I'm glad to see everyone working on this. Please note that even though it's marked as Dartmouth street, I included pictures from all over the neighborhood and even wrote that it's the whole neighborhood and not just Dartmouth. When you want to flag something to get fixed on this site, you have to pick one road for some reason but I did write in the description that the whole neighborhood is a disaster. 2 fully disabled people and a new born baby alone live on Dartmouth. As I wrote in an e-mail:

It's extremely important that these deathtrap roads get paved. My neighbors just had a baby girl and the husband said driving his wife down the road to the ER was the hardest part. She was screaming in pain and even offered to get out and walk! That's not right! The town deserves to hear every bad thing happening because they're being irrational about fixing our streets properly.

I'm glad we have a legal point now and if anyone sees downed/wet/or flyers in the neighborhood without tags to take, please let Robin know for the time being. If anyone wants MORE to put them in other places, or if they want some tags to give this address to friends, e-mail me with "flyers" as the title and I'll send a PDF to the flyers we made for you to print.

Sorry my map is a little weird. The little red arrows next to the red dots is just the direction the flyers are facing. The purple dots is the driving route to see them all in one drive without having to do the roads too many times. Just changing the flyers on Birch was a challenge. The houses down there are so lovely too and they don't deserve this. No tax payer deserves this.

-Shannon

Hi Eric- If you need help to get the Evergreen Rd listed, please let me know since I live on it. Thanks for doing the research on this! Also the rain took most flyers down this weekend. I will be putting more up tonight.

Hi again,
Please know that if you decide to have the road paved (and pay for it), it must be like 22'+ wide. Birch Rd. is, at its' widest, 17'. That means that ALL of the residents must agree to lose frontage in order to pave the whole thing. Same thing for Evergreen and Crest. I'm not trying to dissuade anyone. I just think this is something that we should ALL agree on. We need to get the word out more! Who is up for door-to-door?

Thanks for the feedback Ackerley,

I was under the impression that we could pay for it to be paved as is, but to get it accepted by the town it has to be certain widths, and have better drainage, etc.

Either way, my goal at the moment is to gather all the relevant info and our options. Hopefully I can do that after meeting with Mr. Digiacomo and discussing it here. Then I was thinking we can share all the info online or pass a small packet of information around the neighborhood. I just want to be fully informed before I start going door to door.

Okay, that sounds good!

My phone number is 508-400-4323 & email is fancydunlap@gmail.com. Please email me or text me, or call if you need me to go door to door or attend meetings or whatever you need help with. I am not so great at initiating but I'm a very eager and willing helper for all of this.

I haven't read all of the comments, but I want to make sure that Ash Street is listed as one of the streets. We have had several cars destroyed over the almost 11 years we have lived here and we no longer entertain at our home as we don't want people to come down that hill and hit all of the potholes (even though they did "fill" them yesterday, that won't last long). I have been told over the years that people who have lived there a long time do not want the roads re-done, as people will just drive faster through our neighborhood. I know that may be an issue in the future, but I want our roads safe and comfortable to drive on. It broke my heart to hear how your neighbor actually wanted to get out of the car and walk when she was in labor. This has to be taken care of soon.

The holes on this road have been filled

This has not been resolved - Please don't close this out!

The work is completed and this will be closed.

I understand that you want to close this issue, but why is East Evergreen, which is just across Route 27 from us, so beautifully re-done? Can someone within the highway division give us an answer to this?
This is a good-sized neighborhood that does pay quite a bit of real estate taxes into the system. We just ask that after all these years, can our neighborhood's roads be re-done just once. You fill the multiple holes every year and that must cost quite a bit of money. If you fix these roads completely, then you won't have problems for many years to come and the whole group of us will stop complaining. Why do we have to wait until someone is seriously hurt to get a proper response?

What work was completed? We are asking for repaving, not fixing. This is still very open whether you say it is or not.

Whoever is interested in this just email me and I'll put together a list and we can continue the discussion elsewhere. We can use email or there are some nice free team messaging solutions like Slack that we can use.

What is your email address?

eric.biagiotti@gmail.com

By the way, I already have emails for Shannon, Nancy, and Robin as they were posted above plus the people that have already messaged me privately.

This want opened to get potholes filled. The people in the West Evergreen neighborhood want to find out how they can get the town of Natick to pave their roads. They want their neighborhood roads to be safe to walk and drive on without the threat of falling or damaging their vehicles. The seasonal patching of the neighborhood is just as bad over time as the potholes. If the town is currently unable to pave the roads in this neighborhood, please tell us the steps that need to be taken by us and the town to make them "accepted".

This appears to be the steps to get it accepted as found by Aaron. http://natickma.gov/DocumentCenter/Home/View/5089

But as Glen mentioned earlier, betterment may also be an approach. I'll be finding out more about betterment when I meet with the town engineer, at which point we can come up with a plan.

great Idea Eric but I also think we should just keep posting on this to show the Town that we are serious about getting these roads fixed and will take further steps to make sure it gets done. Also what about contacting solve it 7 after you speak with Mr. Digiacomo. If you decide to go the route with the packets, I am more then happy to make the copies.

Thanks Robin,

This seems like its a ticket system for the Highway division, so I don't know how effective it will be to keep posting here. Natick does have a process for us to go through to attempt to get the roads accepted plus road betterment, and I think we should make an attempt at using that process. But of course if we feel like we need outside help at some point, I am all for it. I think we just need a little more time to get organized and more info. I'm giving people a day or 2 to send me their emails, then I'll send out a group message.

My e-mail is beth.widisky@comcast.net and I am at 19 Ash Street - the very end. Is there a possibility to include Ash Street all the way to the end? Otherwise, they won't touch the road in front of my house.

Beth,

I plan on asking about the entire neighborhood, but I wouldn't be surprised if we have to go through the process on a road by road basis. I'll let you know what I find out.

EricB, I agree that this is the wrong place for the continuing conversation. This is a reporting site, not a social media site. I'm loving the community engagement though. I recommend "Natick Nextdoor" as a social media site where this conversation can continue and others may see it as well. (or any other social media/blog site).

Closed

This is NOT 'closed', Glen. Nice try though trying to silence all the hard work we're doing. This will continue because this is a strong group. I'm even writing this from a hospital bed, I'm so upset you want us quiet. I will fight for our rights even as I'm this sick. Everyone, stay strong and stick together

Thank you for reporting this issue to us.

Opening this until we have a link to a new forum site to talk on there. anyone know a good forum they can set up?

Please find another venue for your conversations. Thank you

Shannon, did you get my email about Nextdoor? If you sign up at nextdoor.com, it will automatically put you in the evergreen neighborhood. And if you look under groups on the left, you should see one I created for roads. I already posted a bunch of links and info and some discussion has started.

Thank you, Eric. As long as we have a place to discuss this, I don't mind closing this one.