My wife and I share a gravel road with four families. Two residences are only a hundred feet from our county road, while the other three residences are a half-mile or more from the road maintained by the county.

Our other “neighbors” are the various oil and gas companies who have drilled wells, installed pipelines, and have built a compressor station near our homes.

The condition of our road has varied wildly during the 34 years we have lived here. Some years there is almost no activity and no road damage, and other times the heavy equipment traffic is constant. Finding out which company is responsible, or most responsible, for the damage was a frustrating, time-consuming process.

Since 2007, a single call to the La Plata Energy Council resulted in a response and action in a reasonable amount of time. Sometimes the road is graded by someone who isn’t a skilled operator and sometimes a grader operator does a good job.

Christi Zeller has been very cooperative in returning calls and setting up road maintenance. I don’t know who was in charge of the most recent effort, but much-needed gravel was added to a damaged section and the grader operator did a superb job.

It’s easy to complain about the noise, dust and inconvenience of living in area of our county where oil and gas activity is extensive, but we are grateful to the unknown operators/neighbors who took pride in their work when maintaining our road.

Tim Williams

Durango