LUMBERTON — Whether it be with a shovel or tractor, a handful of residents living in Littlefield Acres have been fighting an ongoing battle to keep the roads to their homes accessible.
Heavy rainfall can make driving along some Robeson County roads difficult. So it is on Littlefield Loop Road, a U-shaped road that is accessed from Regan Church Road.
After a long period of rain the road turns into a tan and black trail of mud fit for mud bogging. Deep holes the size of tractor tires or larger form. When this happens there is no straight line of travel on the road in either direction.
Linda Sinclair, 66, who lives on the south side of Littlefield Loop Road, uses a shovel, and her neighbor, 69-year-old Anthony Morrisey, who lives on the north side, bought a small tractor. Both have the same goal: Keeping the road smooth and free of potholes.
They agree that it has been a tough battle because they don’t just focus on the portion of road in front of their homes. They do repair work on the entire length of the mile-long road. They say they receive little help from their neighbors or the owner of unoccupied portions of the land that make up the development, which is comprised of 42 houses and mobile homes.
“When it rains we can’t drive out here,” Morrisey said. “I bought a tractor and box blade to smooth it out, but what we do only lasts for a little while. We’re really, really in bad shape out here.”
He’d like to see the road paved.
Sinclair pays out of pocket to buy a sand and clay mix to fill in the holes and spends hours shoveling the mix into them. Often she works alone. Sometimes her son helps.
“I’m tired,” she said. “We are in need of some help.”
She’s lived in the neighborhood 20 years and doubts that anyone, especially politicians, will help them, so she keeps shoveling.
“They ain’t going to do nothing,” she said.
The two took their concern to the Robeson County Board of Commissioners’ meeting on Jan. 22, but didn’t get the answers they wanted. Sinclair wasn’t surprised.
Robeson County Commissioner David Edge said at the meeting their problem is similar to many complaints from residents across the county regarding roads. Most of the roads in the county are maintained by the state, which has no jurisdiction over private roads, he said.
Edge suggested the residents along Littlefield Loop Road form an organization to address the problem.
Board Chairman Jerry Stephens said he would be willing to help them do that. The neighborhood is in his district.
Dorothy McNeal, whose family initially owned the land and sold the majority of it to homeowners, said she still owns property there, but doesn’t feel she’s responsible for the road. She said problems arise every time there is a lot of rain.
“You can’t do anything when there’s too much water,” she said. “I can do what I can do.”
She said she is not open to any form of collaboration with residents to pave the road.
“Pave it? Are you kidding?” she said. “I don’t make that kind of money.”
She also doesn’t believe all the property owners would come together to make it happen.
“What they are going to say is no,” she said.
Morrisey is willing to do what it takes to get the road in shape because he believe he deserves some kind of relief. He wonders what he is getting for the taxes he pays.
“I have empathy for him and it’s a common problem all over the county on these private roads, but I wouldn’t have come out to talk to him if I didn’t have empathy for his situation,” Stephens said. “I’ve been out there several times to help him in the past.”
Stephens said the neighborhood organizing a homeowners association would be a step in the right direction. And he is willing to help make that happen.
“If everybody can come together, or the majority of them to come together, we can find the money,” he said.
Morrisey is working to get more people in the neighborhood on board.
“We’ll work together,” he said. “Whatever it takes to get something done. I guarantee if the road was paved there wouldn’t be an empty lot out here.”
