When one of the original Board Members, Gene Miller, built his home in 1984, there were only 6 homes. The roads were barely passable in rainy weather because of the lack of base and proper drainage. After a few years, some of the residents got together and wrote all the property owners for a voluntary donation to help with the roads. About 1/3 responded with donations, which were used for base and grading. This went on for several years and died a lingering death due to disinterest. As more people moved into the ranch and traffic increased, we looked for another solution to the problem.

After much discussion and wrangling, a meeting was held and two options were considered: CSD or county assessment district. Financially, we determined that the country assessment district was too expensive and promised nothing more than maybe one time a year grading. We circulated a petition and obtained about 89% approval from the residents here to go ahead with a CSD @ $360 per year, to be collected by the county. As boundaries, we used those suggested by the County for the assessment district. The other parts of the ranch (like Lazy Hill, etc.) were empty at the time.

The fast-rising costs of materials and labor have really hurt the district. We voted to raise the assessment from $360 to $500 per year, which really isn't sufficient to make much headway. IRCSD's sole income is the $500 annual assessment, collected by the county with property taxes in December and April. The purpose of the CSD at the time of formation was to maintain the present roads in passable condition. No thought was given at that time to chip seal or paving, just maintaining passable roads with base. We tried to have 2 – 3 gradings per year, but as time went by and prices climbed radically, it became harder to do. A new group of directors came onto the board with the president pushing for chip sealing the roads. Over the early years, we had initiated the practice of putting aside some of the funds each year for emergency purposes. This was used to chip seal the first part of the road, Independence Ranch Rd., from the entrance and up the hill on Cerros Pioneros. The Board President pushed for more mileage of chip seal and subsequently several more roads were treated. Unfortunately, conditions have caused those sections to deteriorate to the point where major work is needed.

Your current board is working to develop a plan to maintain and improve the roads with our current level of funding. Your help is needed!  Please see that culverts and drainage along your property are clear. If you could help us to keep the weeds clear along the road as it passes by your property, that would be a huge help. Mostly, we need your ideas and participation at the Board meetings. They are only held once a month, and generally last little more than an hour. Please consider attending our next meeting.

Update........The Roads in the Ranch have all been chipsealed! This is due to the hard work of all who participated with the Board over the past several years. Thanks to Mark Kenyon, Don Duke, Carole Noe, Terry Leezer, Bill Mulcahey (all current Board members) also thanks to George Tracy (past Board member). Special Thanks to our General Manager John Eulberg who worked tirelessly to secure funding through the FEMA, CALEMA, and the USDA to improve our roads, Thanks also to Robert Sroth who has helped to maintain the roads over the past few years.

Thank You.