OPEN LETTER FROM HAVERSTRAW MAN CRITICIZING O&R PAVEMENT WORK

Letter Originally Sent to the Village DPW,

I’m a resident of the village and just noticed the trench repaving job done by O&R when they recently replaced the gas main under New Main Street. It looks horrible. They didn’t saw cut the pavement beforehand and either the improper backfill or thin paving is already settling below the surrounding road surface. They didn’t bind or seal the pavement edges either. True, the street had some cracks in it before, but since this road carries trucks, buses and fire equipment (and is our ‘Main Street’ to boot) I think that a for-profit company with lots of resources who charges literally everyone lots of money every month has an obligation to leave conditions as good or better than they were.

If the workmanship isn’t good enough for the driveways of O&R board members then it’s not good enough for our village. The village staff has more than enough challenges without having to waste time and our tax dollars redoing work performed by a public utility. Residents shouldn’t have to suffer the extra wear and tear on our cars due to the rough road, business owners should feel proud to have a location on our (New) Main Street and I’m sure none of our taxpayers want to pay higher taxes to repave the entire street when the surface fails prematurely.

Is there a way to force O&R to come redo the paving job correctly?

Keith O’Hara
Village of Haverstraw