In an attempt to offset the voluntary costs of maintaining their private roads, residents of the Breezy Gale neighborhood have voted to form a village district.

“If people would have been paying right along, we wouldn’t be here,” said Glenn Watson, president of the Breezy Gale Park Association.

In the past, the district, which runs along the northeastern shoreline of Cobbetts Pond and includes Sawtelle Road, Spring and Short streets, had paid for the annual maintenance of the roads, including plowing, out of voluntary donations from residents.

On average, year-round residents are asked to pay $100 to keep their driveways cleared and plowed throughout the winter months, while a $25 contribution is asked of seasonal residents for an occasional plow to allow them access to their properties.

During a winter as severe as this past year’s, year-round residents were asked for $200 to help make up the cost of the maintenance. According to Watson, out of the 48 landowners in the village district only 25 have contributed thus far.

“The people around the pond that have the same issues that we have are watching this very closely,” Watson said. “When people don’t pay, how much can you do?”

Seventeen of the district’s registered voters decided in favor of creating the smaller village government – which gives district elected officials the ability to handle certain services, such as road maintenance or fire protection – with five votes against during a secret ballot held on Aug. 17.

“By forming a village district, we will be better able to develop a master plan for road maintenance and road improvements. We will implement this over time and not in one fell swoop,” said resident Jim Morrow. “The ideal is not to have a great financial impact on anyone, but to draw on all residents to maintain the Breezy Gale roads.”

While the results of that night’s vote were met with applause and cheering, not all of the new village district’s residents were pleased with the decision. Jerry LaRochelle, a resident of the district for 25 years, objected to the limiting of voting rights to only registered voters in the town of Windham, calling it “taxation without representation.”

“It may not be fair, but it’s the law and the law is the law,” said Bernard Campbell, legal counsel for the town. Under a ruling from the Supreme Court, states have the ability to bar the voting rights of nonresidents, Campbell said. Formation of the new district will likely result in a new tax on the village’s property owners, above what they are already taxed by the town, though proponents of the measure were careful not to phrase it as such.

“I want to clarify that we can call it a third tax, but its not exactly a third tax because right now we voluntarily pay for the upkeep of the roads,” Morrow said. “It’s not a third tax, we’re already paying it, or most of us are.”

Following the formation of the new governmental entity, named the Breezy Gale Village District, residents elected Morrow, Dennis Rogers and Carl DiPaolo as district commissioners for three-, one-and-a-half-, and one-year terms respectively. Dom Tringale, Gary Marlow and Alfred Schommer were elected as clerk, treasurer and moderator, respectively.

In order to spread the financial responsibility of the district’s roads to all of the village’s landowners, the newly elected officials will be required to lay out the existing private roads as district roads. Voters can they act on the proposal during the district’s first official meeting sometime between January and May of next year. A date has not yet been set.

“No matter what, we’re all in this together,” Watson said, addressing the village’s residents at the end of the meeting. “Be thy neighbor, don’t take it personal and remember the party that we have on Labor Day.”