As dirt roads get worse by the day, Hilton Head weighs cost of paving

Hilton Head Island residents will likely be paying an extra $25 dollars per vehicle soon — a new fee Town Council reluctantly gave preliminary approval to on Tuesday.

The revenue from the new road-usage fee would go to a cause council members say is necessary and noble — acquiring, maintaining and paving dirt roads where some of the island’s poorest residents have lived for generations.

Town staff acknowledged the fee, which would generate more than $730,000 per year, was an imperfect solution but argued it might be their only option for tackling the largely unfunded town priority of paving some of the island’s 90 dirt roads.

“This is one of the very few revenue sources we could determine was available for this,” said Susan Simmons, town finance director.

Council members voted unanimously to approve the new road usage fee, which would appear on town residents’ motor vehicle tax bills. The measure will be up for a second and final vote June 14, the same day the council will consider its full budget for FY 2017 for the first time.

Mayor David Bennett cautioned the council against delaying the issue any longer, citing at least $500,000 in dirt road needs for the coming year that don’t have any other funding source.

“I’m tired of (this issue) hanging over our communities’ heads. It’s a stain,” Bennett said. “The issue’s not going away, and it’s only getting more expensive every day that goes by.”

The disparate conditions of the island’s paved and dirt roads was clear Tuesday night as officials discussed Monday’s heavy rain from Tropical Storm Colin. Steve Riley, town manager, said any problems were “isolated cases” and that the town should be proud its improved drainage left most areas virtually untouched.

“It’s frankly pretty amazing what we’ve accomplished over the years to have this be such a non-event,” Riley said.

Others got mud, said Ward 1 Councilman Marc Grant, who represents areas with the bulk of the island’s unpaved roads. Some people likely couldn’t get in or out of their homes Monday night, Bennett said.

About Mustang Lane in particular, Grant said he would speak with engineers to see what could be done about the poor conditions.

Some residents who live on dirt roads, including Tai Scott of Candy Doll Bluff, said Tuesday’s vote was no victory. The fee is simply too high for many native islanders, who have long paid property taxes despite lack of road and drainage improvements.

“We’ve been paying (taxes) all along, and now we have to go and pay another $25?” Scott said.

Thomas Barnwell Jr., a native-island businessman and community leader, said before the meeting he hoped the council would consider a sliding scale that would ease the burden on low-income residents. That isn’t an option, town staff said during the council’s discussion.

There is no other money in the town’s budget for dirt road work other than grants from the Community Development Block Grant program, through which the council hopes to pave five roads by 2020.

The town also hopes to receive $7 million for dirt road paving from a potential 1 percent sales tax hike, which is under consideration by Beaufort County Council. That referendum will go before voters in November.

Last April, when The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette reported that the town and county had paved just a third of its dirt roads over the last 20 years, most council members balked at levying any fee for paving.

The new measure would be part of the largest capital improvement budget the town has seen in years — about $105.5 million of work in FY 2017, up from $94.7 million in actual spending this fiscal year.

Rough roads in paradise

 

April 24, 2015 Despite native islanders' long-standing pleas for their dirt roads to be paved, the Town of Hilton Head Island has made little progress in accomplishing the task. Instead, it has spent generously on other non-basic services and projects. | READ

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This story was originally published June 7, 2016 at 7:08 PM with the headline "As dirt roads get worse by the day, Hilton Head weighs cost of paving."