In response to the article about local access roads in Lookout, I have lived on Fairway Drive for the last 40 years or so. One of the things I liked about it when I moved in was that it was obviously a local access road, sometimes called an LAR, because there were a lot of bumps from do-it-yourself pothole repair. I figured that these repairs were good speed bumps to keep the traffic down.

Joshua Kieles, who also lives on Fairway and was quoted in the article, might not have realized it was an LAR because the city paved the road when it put in the sewer back in the day, and those improvements lasted quite a while. The lack of maintenance is starting to show and he might have noticed some potholes, but like others who moved in after the sewer went in, he didn’t know he would have to fix them himself. His real estate agent should have mentioned that.

I think the $30,000 figure another resident along a local access road used in the article may have come from cases like Ayers Road, where the county took over maintenance and charged the landowners a one-time cost that was so much that some of them had to move out.

Properties on LARs are valued somewhat lower because of the condition of the roads. In fact one of the early complaints I heard was about the lower property values because of the potholes. That means the assessed valuation will be lower, too. Houses are more affordable, and that’s a good thing for residents, but maybe not for those trying to profit from the real estate.

I think it would be a bad idea to get the government involved, and I’m willing to fix the holes in front of my house when they “pop up,” which isn’t every year.

Steve Hiatt
Eugene