Gilboa's Flat Creek Road Closed Again

GILBOA – Flat Creek Road in the town of Gilboa is owned by Schoharie County and was closed again two weeks ago by the Schoharie County Department of Public Works. The town made repairs to the road last season in a special agreement with the county to get it reopened last August after three long years.

Its closure significantly impacts several of the town's businesses, according to Gilboa Supervisor Alicia Terry, during a special meeting on Monday afternoon. The meeting was held specifically to weigh the town's options.

The road was reopened last August after the town made repairs to the section known as Paddy's Hole. It's an area packed with clay where a landslide closed the roadway back in April 2022.

The road's closure put a lot of traffic over town-owned Wyckoff Road, which travels through the Gilboa-Conesville Central School property. It caused concern for safety, with a lot of foot traffic when school is in session. The town worked out a deal with the county to widen Wyckoff Road, install some new culverts and pave it, due to deterioration caused by the excess traffic created by the detour, which included heavy construction trucks. The county helped the town with $205,000 toward the project.

The town paid back some of that cost by doing the work on Flat Creek Road last summer to get it reopened, albeit to restricted traffic. It was restricted, but Supervisor Terry said everyone was using it. The town was unable to install a new larger multi-arch culvert after it arrived last October, to make it a more permanent repair and allow additional traffic. The agreement ended on Dec. 31, 2025.

The county was asked not to use Wyckoff Road for detours as originally posted by the county and to use county roads for the detour. At this time detour signs are directing residents to Bull Hill Road in Conesville and Keyser Kill Road.  Despite the posting, Wyckoff Road has seen an increase in traffic by vehicles  under eight tons as residents continue using it as an unofficial detour since the closure of Flat Creek Road. 

Monday's meeting was to go over the four options posed by the county:  Relocate the roadway; Build a bridge; Do some lower cost repairs with ongoing monitoring and maintenance or give the road to the town.

Monday's discussion indicated the town may need to lobby state representatives in the Assembly and Senate and let them know how "incredibly important" the roadway is to local business and to urge the county highway committee to keep things moving along and to get the county to repair the road. "The town has sacrificed a lot for the county's road outlook," said Terry.

Schoharie County Interim DPW Commissioner Darrin Palmatier said he and Supervisor Terry and engineers from GSL, a geological survey company, walked the roadway on Tuesday to see what could be done going forward. Palmatier said a geological study was made previously by a different company.

The consensus of town council members on Monday was they would like to see the town continue to work with the county to get the road fixed in a reasonable amount of time and for it not to be closed. They offered the town's manpower and equipment and to use county equipment if needed.

The culvert remains at the town highway garage, according to Highway Superintendent John Wyckoff. He said there was a minor repair of the roadway needed after a recent water event, but it was nothing major and in his mind it did not warrant closure of the roadway. 

Palmatier said they closed the road recently because of the freeze and thaw, which created some failures  in the roadbed and they were erring on the side of safety. On Wednesday morning he was sending someone to check the area after heavy rainstorms in the region overnight, to see if there was any further damage. The section that caused the recent closure is not the same area where the town previously made repairs.

Wyckoff said they had to get  approval to use the town road as a detour. The first time it happened, he said they  should have had a written agreement. He said the first culvert the town installed on Flat Creek Road was recently repaired. He said they used a different process to install the culvert which is not as susceptible to erosion. 

He believes Palmatier is reverting back to the former commissioner’s original statement and that nothing has changed and the county really has not done much to study the situation or to come up with a plan for repair.

"I am disappointed after the work we have done and their seeming lack of caring," said Wyckoff. "If we put in the multi-plate culvert, it should solve the issue at Paddy's Hole." He believes the fact it is stronger and bolted in sections, makes it less likely to slide apart. "I was hoping it would be a joint venture with the county supplying the materials for the installation of the multi-plate culvert by the town crew."

Councilwoman Dottie Pickett said she did not want it to become another Stryker Road, which was closed in 2011 and abandoned after Hurricane Irene. Other roads were repaired to allow access to Nickerson's Park, now Catskill Mountain KOA, but it left people shut off in emergencies and is still and inconvenience to some.

Emergency access and evacuation are also concerns with Flat Creek Road, which is an inconvenience to  many, in addition to having an impact on town businesses.

The bridge option was considered too expensive and no one wants to take over the roadway from the county. Supervisor Terry said a visit to the repair site was set for Tuesday, with someone to review the site for installation of soil nails.

Soil nails have been used in some cases to stabilize steep bank areas. 

Palmatier said GSL does do construction and is familiar with the soil nails.

"The plan going forward," said Palmatier, "is to make some temporary repairs to get the road reopened." He gave a time frame of late April, early May to get the road reopened. 

Supervisor Terry said she would draft a resolution for the April 13 regular meeting of the town board.