Gordon Road Dispute Continues

BROOME - At the latest Broome Town Board meeting in June, a resident of Gordon Road brought up the Town’s dispute with the Department of Environmental Conservation regarding the maintenance of the road.

Gordon Road sits at a peculiar place in between jurisdictions, as a portion of the path was abandoned by the Town, another portion is cleared by DEC for logging, and it continues out of the county into another municipality.

As such, the roadway itself has been ripped apart by heavy machinery and logging trucks, but there are few people that are ready and willing to maintain it.

DEC has claimed in the past that it falls on the Town of Broome’s shoulders to repair the road for residents living there, yet the Board sees it as the state’s burden for destroying it in the first place.

After previous meetings where the Board encouraged residents to reach out to the state directly to try and find a solution, one resident did exactly that, contacting DEC’s representatives to receive a letter in response.

She read the letter aloud on Wednesday, where much of the same language was used as before. DEC believes that Gordon Road is suitable for public and forestry access in its current state, and they are not obligated to maintain the road past those objectives.

However, the resident asked the contact at the department whether they had been out to see the destroyed road for themselves, which they admitted that they hadn’t.

“This is extraordinarily unjust,” the resident said. “They just keep passing the buck, and it’s getting really aggravating on the state side.”

The letter concluded by stating that the representative discourages further correspondence from the resident, leading them to plan to seek allies in Senator Peter Oberacker and Assemblyman Chris Tague in Albany. 

The Board encouraged the resident to continue sending letters to other key individuals that might make a difference, then went on to note that they’d look forward to helping as soon as replies were received.

“Thank you guys for being on our side,” the resident concluded.