Horsing around? Roadwork draws concerns from North Salem's equestrian community

NORTH SALEM, N.Y. - Just say neigh.

North Salem’s efforts to stabilize some of its more vulnerable dirt roads is once again stirring passions in the horse-centric community.

Hoping to rein in the use of recycled asphalt, aka millings, on parts of the town’s unimproved byways is the local bridle trails association.

The biggest trouble spots – stormwater washout-wise – have historically been identified as Norton Road, Nash Road, Baxter Road, Vail Lane, and Hunt Lane.

(The town’s highway department has also deployed a NYSDOT-specified material known as “Item 4,” which is made up of sand, dirt, and up to 2-inch stone. It’s brown and resembles an old dirt road when compacted.)

When first applied, millings are crumbly and not difficult to ride on.

But as more and more vehicles roll over them, they get tamped down and become almost like regular pavement.

This can make the surface “slippery and dangerous,” especially for shod horses on inclines, according to the group’s co-president, Charlotte Harris.

“From a horseback riding perspective, it’s not good,” she testified at the Town Board’s Aug. 19 meeting.

Dirt roads provide more cushioned, natural footing that reduces stress on a horse’s legs, joints, and hooves. This helps prevent injuries and offers better traction.

Environmental Impact

Folks raised concerns about the impact of millings have on the environment as well.

Used as a binder in asphalt concrete for road construction is bitumen, a sticky, black, viscous form of petroleum that’s a byproduct of crude oil refining.

This could leach into waterways such as the Titicus River, they said.

Good old natural dirt washing off unpaved roads can be a problem too, because it contains phosphorus in both organic (from dead plant and animal matter) and inorganic mineral forms, according to North Salem Supervisor Warren Lucas.

Lucas belongs to East of Hudson Watershed Corp., the entity tasked with installing stormwater retrofit projects in Northern Westchester and Putnam and Dutchess counties in the New York City catchment area.

The intent is to meet the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s requirements for phosphorus reduction.

“Item 4” isn’t totally benign either because it can also wash away.

Lucas has fond childhood memories of a fishing spot near Hilltop Drive that had always attracted dozens of anglers during trout season.

“There is no pond there anymore,” he said sadly, blaming the “thousands of cubic yards of Item 4 that we put on the road on Vail and Hunt (Lanes).”

Horse County

North Salem Bridle Trails Association maintains more than 100 miles of paths that link the town’s with ones in Ridgefield, Conn.

The town itself has a deep and visible equestrian culture that’s centered around its open spaces, many farms, board facilities, and high-profile events such as shows at the internationally recognized Old Salem Farm.

There’s also the Golden’s Bridge Hounds, an organization that’s been carrying on the time-honored tradition of fox hunting since 1924.

So when folks say there are probably more horses than humans in North Salem, they’re not joking.

And to call the horsey set a potential barnyard bloc in local politics might not be an exaggeration either.

Councilwoman Katherine Daniels is the NSBTA co-president, and Deputy Supervisor Peter Kamenstein sits on its board of directors.

Zander

NSBTA board member Anita Zander had a bone to pick about “Item 4” being used on Vail Lane.

“It’s a flat road and it’s just constantly full of rocks. You can’t even walk on it,” she said.

Saying he’s gotten complaints about the road’s rutted condition even from “people without horses,” Lucas told Zander that the town’s tried to smooth out the rumples with a blade.

If they left them in, “maybe the cars would go slower,” Zander suggested, not with irony.

Kozak

Robin Kozak, a NSBTA trail warden who boards her horses at Little Tree Farm off Norton Lane, was one of the ones raising environmental questions about millings.

“I made a terrible mistake many, many years ago on my farm in Connecticut by having millings brought in” – for a driveway,” she said.

In less than a year, 19 of Kozak’s chickens were dead and one of her horses had gastrointestinal cancer.

“Every time it rained, all those oils in the millings percolated up and you would see pools of water with it floating on top,” she said.

Kozak asked if the town had conducted any kind of scientific study to see if any contaminants were running downhill from Norton into the Titicus River.

Daniels acknowledged that it had not, but “if we’re going to keep this us, we probably should.”

They could also consult existing studies on the impact of millings use, she said.

Agreeing that it was a “good question,” Lucas offered another anecdote.

East of Hudson was working with the DEC on a situation where “somebody had buried a bunch of blacktop” very close to a road.

He asked the state official what the difference was between the pile’s contents and the stuff that was on the road itself.

“He said there’s no difference … 15 feet away on the road, it’s OK; here it’s hazardous waste,” Lucas recalled.

Town Planning Board member Chris Brockmeyer urged the town to stop using millings until their environmental impact could be determined.

Nitkin

NSBTA trail warden Roger Nitkin of Vail Lane had bigger worries.

He recently had a “very polite and cordial” conversation with Highway Superintendent Ward Hanaburgh who told him that the shoring up was being “done, really, in just some selected areas.”

Nitkin was less than reassured.

“We all love the beautiful dirt roads that add to the character of our wonderful town,” he said, adding that he was worried that “this could be some sort of creeping thing.”

Periodically doing a section here and there seemed to Nitkin to be “kind of a stealth paving of the roads.”

Knowlton

Richard Knowlton of Finch Road (which crosses Norton) tried to deal with erosion on his driveway “many years ago” with millings.

Even with that there was some “casual water” that continued to run over the treated surface, he said.

Eventually advised by engineers that no amount of the stuff could completely resolve the problem, he was forced to install catch basins and a drainage system and “crown” or elevate the roadbed.

That tactic diverted the flow and has allowed the drive to “remain in decent shape” during heavy rains, Knowlton said.

Without solving drainage problems first, the town’s going to have the same problems “over and over and over again” no matter what type of material it uses on the dirt roads and it’s going to be a “waste” of taxpayer money, he insisted.

Lucas understood his point, but noted that drainage installed on Nash Road had proved to be pretty useless “during some of these bad storms.”

“I mean the catch basins were out of the ground, everything was just ripped apart,” he said, recalling that he had suggested putting cement on the sides of the roads to keep them intact.

Lucas admitted that he didn’t have all the answers at present, but he did know that the town can’t legally “dump water on other people’s properties.”

Harris had another suggestion: Geosynthetics.

The materials reportedly stabilize dirt roads and increase their lifespan by providing separation, filtration, reinforcement, and confinement of the soil.

Common types include geotextiles such as woven and nonwoven fabrics for separation and reinforcement, geogrids for load distribution and interlock with aggregates, and geocells (3D honeycomb structures) that confine infill material. 

They’re probably “expensive,” she allowed.

Next Steps

Councilman Martin Aronchick told Harris that he “doesn’t ride” and wasn’t aware of the enormity of public interest in the topic.

“It’s a problem to be solved to be sure, but if your membership has any suggestions, we want to hear them,” he said.

The supervisor was onboard with that.

“What I’d love to hear is what other people are doing as opposed to just ‘We don’t want it,' because I got that 'we don’t want it,'” Lucas said.

Hanaburgh, who was unable to be at the meeting that night, has been diligently trying to come up with a solution that satisfies everyone, he added.

“I think we have a lot of interest here. I’d not been aware of that, so this is good,” Lucas said, adding that town officials and residents should sit down formally and try to “figure out what works best.”