Dirt Road with a capital D wins county approval

By Dan MacArthur
North Forty News

In his accolade to dirt roads, humorist Lee Pitts attributes most of modern society's maladies to the loss of dirt roads, contending that, "Most paved roads lead to trouble; Dirt Roads more likely lead to a fishing creek or a swimming hole."

A dozen Bellvue-area residents won the right to retain that bucolic image after appealing Larimer County's insistence that the name of their own Dirt Road be changed to comply with its ongoing road addressing and naming project.

According to Dirt Road residents Kathryn Stowe and Moby Wile in their appeal, the road gained its descriptive designation some time between 1977 and 1980 when the county began naming and numbering roads and residences in the Davis Ranch area.

According to the appeal, Stowe told the county employee doing the work that the residents had decided to name it Dirt Road because "the nature of the road was such a big part of their lives.

"During this long history of usage we know of no difficulties or ambiguities caused by the name - with no signs to mark its location, by the way."

But in April the county notified residents that the Rural Addressing Project recommended the name change because emergency responders feared that there could be confusion whether a caller was referring to the Dirt Road or any old dirt road.

"We didn't want to have generic descriptions of road bases," explained building department office supervisor Karlin Mueller. "We want the name to be unique and identifiable in Larimer County. In that process Dirt Road became a flag for us."

However, Chief Building Official Tom Garton on May 6 upheld the residents' appeal. He agreed that they had demonstrated the "historical significance" of the name Dirt Road. He further stated that emergency service providers "determined this is an acceptable name in this situation."

The decision was welcomed by residents who certainly would agree with Pitts that "Dirt Roads give character." Even though he noted that a dirt road "can jar you right down to your teeth sometimes but it's worth it, if at the end is home...a loving spouse, happy children and a dog."