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Hi neighbor, I'm Terry Rayment at 2625 Minero Rd. You know the road. The washboard that rattles your whole car. The craters you have to swerve around. The rocks scraping the underside of your vehicle every single time you pull in or out.

This road is hurting our cars. Alignments. Tires. Suspension. It adds up fast, and it's only getting worse.

Because Minero is a private road, the County won't touch it. That's on us. But that also means we don't need anyone's permission. If enough neighbors chip in, we can just get it done.

The plan

A one-time, serious professional regrade of about one mile of our road, from Duncan up past Calaveras. Not another quick scrape that washes out in a month. A real job by a licensed local contractor.

Here's exactly what that means:

• Heavy regrade across the full mile. A motor grader cuts down the high spots, fills in the low ones, and levels the whole surface, not just the worst sections. Every part of the road gets worked.
• Cut a proper crown down the middle. This is the part most people don't know about. A road needs to be slightly peaked in the center, maybe 2–3 inches higher than the edges, so that when it rains, water sheets off to the sides instead of sitting in the middle and eating holes. Right now our road is flat or even dished in spots. That's why the potholes keep coming back no matter how many times someone grades it.
• Clean out the drainage swales on the sides. The shallow ditches alongside the road are supposed to carry water away. Ours are silted in and overgrown, so water just sits there and soaks into the road base. Clearing them out is a big part of why this job will actually last.
• Spot-fill the worst potholes with imported material. The biggest craters will get filled with proper crushed aggregate, not just pushed dirt that washes out again. This gives the worst sections a real base to compact against.

Done right, with the crown and drainage done properly, this holds up for 12–18 months before needing a light touch-up. And that touch-up is a fraction of the cost of this first job. Compare that to a quick grade with no crown or drainage work, which starts falling apart in 6–8 weeks after the first rain.

I'm getting three written bids from local grading contractors: Joshua Grading in Phelan, MSS Grading, and FMK Grading in Hesperia. MSS Grading came in at $10,000 ($6,500 equipment, $3,500 labor). Two more bids are pending — the final number will be shared with everyone before anyone is asked to commit a dollar.

The numbers

First formal bid from MSS Grading: $10,000 ($6,500 equipment rental + $3,500 labor). Two more bids are pending — the final number will depend on all three. Split fairly across the households on our road, that's in the neighborhood of $500–$700 per home, one time — less than a single suspension repair, which most of us are heading toward anyway if nothing changes.

A note on fairness

Some neighbors are close to Duncan and only drive a short stretch. Others drive the whole mile every day. It's not fair to ask everyone to pay the same.

So here's how I want to handle it: you tell me what feels right. Say "I'm close to Duncan, I can do $100" or "I use the whole road, put me down for $300." I'll collect the numbers, see where we land against the bids, and bring it back to everyone. If we're short, we talk. If we're over, great.

No forced formulas. Just neighbors being straight with each other.

About this

I'm just a neighbor at 2625 Minero Rd who got tired of watching the road get worse every year and decided to do something about it. If enough of us say yes, we can have this fixed. If we don't, nothing changes.

Either way, thank you for being a good neighbor. I'm glad we share this road.

- Terry Rayment
2625 Minero Rd, Pinon Hills, CA 92372
Text: (810) 358-2721
Email: raymentterry@gmail.com