Village quandary: To plow or not to plow

MILLERTON — The village has a problem. It would like to be generous and offer to sand and plow the short road where two residences sit at the end of David Road, where village trucks usually turn around when out plowing during the winter. Yet that is where the village boundary line ends. The two homes on that road are therefore in the town’s jurisdiction.

"I’d like to say there’s a real easy solution," Millerton Mayor John Scutieri said during Monday’s Village Board meeting. "I called [Village Attorney] Michele Haab first. She said the problem is liability. If we have a village plow down that road, and we hit a person, what happens with liability?"

Scutieri said if it were a town road the village could have something written up with the town. However, the mayor said North East town Supervisor Dave Sherman told him it was not a deeded road, and that, in his opinion, it was a driveway. As a driveway, the homeowners would be responsible for plowing the roadway.

"It must be owned by one of the two home owners," Scutieri said. "There never were driveway development rights, there were no easement rights. I always assumed it was an extension of David Road.

"I’ll talk to Michele [Haab] about it. I don’t know how far we want to go with it, it’s a relatively small issue," he added.

According to Scutieri, years ago there were complaints because the highway crews would use the road to turn around in and often left a "wall of snow" in their wake.

"You can’t leave people stranded in their driveway," Trustee Marty Markonic said. "Pushing a hill in front of your driveway is a whole different thing. A hedgerow is OK."

"I make a proposal that we consider it town property until we’re convinced otherwise," said Trustee Jack Thomas.

"If it’s a private road we have nothing to say," Trustee Anne Veteran said.

"One of the homeowners is letting the boards know there’s a problem, and something needs to be done," Scutieri said. "We need to find out who owns the property."

"I think that’s a town question," Thomas said.

In the 1950s the homes in the Traver Place development (where David Road is located) were annexed from the town to the village. The two homes in question, however, were built later on and never annexed to the village.

"Those homes are in the town," Scutieri said. "The questions is how far the village lines may be."

The village clerk said she will look into the records to see if there’s a map that can help clarify the issue.

"I would really like to help the people out by sending our guys to plow and sand, but the question of liability puts us in a tricky position," Scutieri said. For the time being, the Village Board agreed to conduct some more research and wait to hear from its attorney on the matter.