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The SLE Homeowner's Association owns equipment used for plowing and maintaining the roads. The roads committee is responsible for overseeing the road maintenance, snow plowing, and weed control. SLE has more than 20 miles of roads.

Snow Plowing	The roads committee has experienced operators that have been instructed on how and when to plow the roads. Snow berms will be left on all driveways. Care will be exercised to keep them as low as possible. It is the responsibility of the homeowner to remove their own berms and not to block the main roads by plowing their driveway out onto the roads. For details, see the letter from February 2000 explaining the SLE policies on road plowing. Our plow operators try to leave as small a berm as possible in front of the drives. However, there are currently over 150 homes in our community and growing. Even if it only took 5 minutes to do each driveway, it would take over 12 hours to do every drive.
Road Grading	Roads are the number one priority in our community. If you take a look at our Budget, you will notice that more than 55% of your dues money goes directly towards the roads and road equipment maintenance. There is considerable overhead as well, including weed control, grader loan, insurance, fuel, and some miscellaneous which brings the total budget dedicated to the roads to over 85% of the yearly budget. Also, all of the money from the SBA special assessment was applied to the roads for much needed improvements.We are sometimes asked if we could grade our roads more often. The best conditions for grading our road occur after a significant amount of rain has fallen. Not only does this keep the dust from becoming a problem during grading, but also allows the rock to settle back into the road surface. If the road is too dry, the rock will simply slide off into the ditches if we try to grade them. If too wet, potholes will pop up faster than we can grade. Ideally, we should water the roads (with a water truck), grade them, roll them (with a large, heavy roller) and water them again. However, we can't afford a water truck, or the water, or a heavy roller for each time we grade. So we have to depend on mother nature to provide us with the proper weather for grading. Our roads have actually been improved by the addition of gravel, and installation of dry wells and culverts. To make improvements as was done in Spirit Lake would require more money than what we take in every year. To do this we would either have to drastically raise dues or levy a large special assessment. These are private roads, not city roads, and grants are very difficult to find for private road improvement. The county will not pave our roads because our roads are not (nor have they ever been) up to county standard. We would have to bring them up to county standards ourselves (which would be very costly) before they would consider taking them over. These are private roads, owned by all members of the SLE Homeowner's Association. Your property taxes go towards maintaining the county roads you drive on outside of the community. If you have any questions about your tax bill, please call the Kootenai County Assessors Office at 208-769-4459.
Dust Control	Dust can be controlled by oiling the roads or other alternative means. You may want to visit the Roadpacker Canada, Inc. website. Oiling the Roads The downside to oiling is an increased number of potholes. Other methods of dust control employ the application of a cohesive agent to the road, which causes the dirt to "clump." This produces far fewer potholes, but is more costly. The homeowner's association is not responsible for dust control. Past records show that the cost of oiling roads is approximately $6000 per linear mile. We have nearly 26 miles of roadway. Additionally, oiling of dirt roads increases the number of potholes. Oiled roads can not be graded without re-applying the oil after grading.Some homeowners oil the roads in front of their homes. If you are one of them: Contact your Road Committee before you oil your roads. Oiling your roads before grading is a waste of your time and effort. Watering the Roads It has been suggested that a lot owner could set up sprinklers and water once a week at night. It would cost less the oiling the road. It would be a bit of a hassle and would only benefit those who have little vegetation between there house and the road, but could work if an owner had a problem with a small section right in front of their house. This sounds like a good idea but it would take a lot of water to penetrate deep enough to last for a day or two. Most houses set back quite a ways from the roads and this would take a very, very long hose to reach out to the road. Some information about proposals and options for dust control: Proposal for Dust Control Assistance Dust Control Options (May 2004)Mission Statement for Roads-2001 Technical Builletin- EMC Squared- an oiling alternative 2003 Proposal for Liberty Drive Improvements
Speed Limit Enforcement	Outside law enforcement can not enforce speed limits on private roads. They have no jurisdiction. The excess speed must be proven, or the "offender" can not be penalized. We have no means of proving the speed of any offender that would hold up in a court of law.Speed bumps in the community would make it very difficult to grade and plow the roads. Also, the Association would be liable if any person was hurt or vehicle damaged as a result of speed bumps constructed by us. Changing the speed limit would not necessarily slow people down. Only some form of speed enforcement will.
Archives	Most homeowners are paying a special assessment along with their dues. Two documents may be of interest: an explanation of the assessment and who pays and a final report on the use of the money. A report from the road committee discusses a project on Liberty Drive.

Other items of interest

A discussion of alternatives to reduce dust problems

A technical guide to one type of dust control

Snow Plow Memo