Joseph Bauer, senior planner for Onslow County Planning and Development, said the county will host a kickoff meeting Sept. 10 to collect nominations and begin an inventory of so-called orphan roads — public streets designed to be state-maintained but never petitioned into the North Carolina Department of Transportation(NCDOT) system.

Bauer defined an orphan road as one “during the development of a subdivision that were designated to be public access ways” but that “failed to be petitioned to the state to be taken over in the state maintenance system.” He said that leaves such roads with no one technically responsible for maintenance, producing compounding deterioration that affects school buses, emergency services and postal delivery.

The Onslow County Board of Commissioners has set aside $2,000,000 to create a loan program intended to pay for repairs that would bring roads to NCDOT standards and support petitions for state adoption, Bauer said. He emphasized the county will not itself perform general road maintenance; the programis meant to fund and coordinate repairs to meet NCDOT criteria and then seek NCDOT takeover.

Bauer described the countyrole: planning and development will convene partners including NCDOT and the tax office, hold a public kickoff to gather information from residents about problem roads and apply a criteria matrix to evaluate candidate roads. He asked residents who think they live off an orphaned road to attend the Sept. 10 kickoff at 6 p.m. at the Onslow County Government Center or to contact him in advance at (910) 989-3011 to provide locations and details.

Bauer said the program grew from repeated public comments to the board and that the funding allocation occurred in the current budget cycle. He characterized the initiative as an effort to "get out in front" of a countywide maintenance gap by coordinating with NCDOT and creating a formal inventory and repair pathway.

Ending: The county will begin the community outreach and inventory process at the Sept. 10 meeting; Bauer said the county will then evaluate repairs with NCDOT and pursue petitions for state adoption on a case-by-case basis.