Downpour sheds light on Orrills Hill water runoff woes

One of the guardrail footings over a culvert at the height of Wednesday's afternoon downpour. (Harrison Thorp photo)

WEST LEBANON - An angry Tony Sinclair stood in a torrential downpour on Wednesday and pointed at rivulets of water and dirt pouring into his driveway from a steep drop on Orrills Hill Road near his home.

“It’s putting cracks in my driveway,” said Sinclair who lives at 258 Orrills Hill Road. “It’s putting dirt in my driveway. Something’s got to be done.”

The rutted and rocky road above Sinclair’s home has long been discontinued by the town, but he says the town is responsible to keep his driveway from being ruined.

Road Commissioner Larry Torno, asked to come look at the problem around 6 p.m. during some of the heaviest rain, told Sinclair it was against the law for the town to do work on a discontinued road.

Sinclair was unconsoled. He said he’s going to set up a meeting with selectmen regarding the town’s responsibility.

Torno and Sinclair seemed to agree that the only way to stop the open runoff down the hill during storms is to put a crown on the road, at least to the top of the hill.

Just below Sinclair’s driveway where the town installed guardrails over a culvert last fall, the water is doing its damage as well, degrading some of the guardrail footings.

“It’s silly for the town not to fix it, because they’re just costing taxpayers more money fixing the guardrail they just put in,” Sinclair said.

Orrills Hill Road was officially discontinued as a town road in the 1920s, then several decades ago the town began taking care of about three tenths of a mile on either end.

The subject of who is responsible for liability issues concerning the road has been grist for much conjecture over the past couple of years after an ATVer was injured on one of the ruts above the maintained part on the Prospect Hill side.