LAKE COUNTY, Fla.,None — There's a fight over who should pay to maintain 130 miles of clay roads in Lake County.
Taxpayers have shelled out nearly a $500,000 in recent years to fix roads that aren't the county's responsibility.
Challenger Drive near Tavares is a road that is a case in point. A homeowner nearby said she recently graded it, and it rained a bit Wednesday to keep the dust down.
But drivers said sometimes it's nearly impossible to get down the road.
Indeed, life along Challenger Drive has its challenges. Just ask Clyde George.
"Boy, when it rains, it's a mess," he said. "I ain't kidding. Ninety percent of it is underwater."
Challenger is not paved. It's one of nearly 2,000 dirt roads not maintained by Lake County.
"At least maintain it. Do something with it!" George said.
"When I get out there, people say, 'Well, what am I paying my taxes for? I can't get out of my property,'" homeowner Leslie Campione said.
County leaders said they receive constant complaints about it. They'll fix dirt roads only to ensure that fire trucks and ambulances can get through. Repairs are very expensive.
"Now, we may have one patch that's a quarter of a mile down -- away from the nearest paved road. Well, I have to build a road to get to that patch," Lake County Public Workd director Jim Stivender said.
That is why the bills last year topped $190,000, and nearly half a million since 2006, all for roads the county is not responsible for.
That has triggered a debate among county leaders. Maintenance of the paved streets is paid for through gasoline taxes. It's not supposed to be used to maintain dirt roads. But George said it should, and it ought to be used for blacktop on Challenger Drive.
"And the taxes -- we pay as much tax as everybody else," George said.
The county has a program to share the cost of paving dirt roads with the homeowners who live along them.
But for streets that are a mile long like Challenger Drive, most homeowners can't afford their share.
WFTV
