TRAVERSE CITY, MI -- When a road commission snow plow damages private property (mailboxes, lawns), who is responsible for making repairs? Well, it depends on the damage.
“What we do is we'll send a supervisor out to look at it on a case by case basis…and they will come back with their opinion and we'll properly respond to the resident on what we think… if the resident still does not think that is fair or has a problem with it, we do have an insurance company that will allow them to send a claim to get their opinion,” said Grand Traverse County Road Commission Manager, Mary Gillis.
There are some damages that the road commission will not repair. Gillis said they no longer pay to replace or fix mailboxes.
“What I say is you can go one of two ways…either put up a cheap one knowing you will probably have to replace it at $10 or $11 or put up a really heavy duty one that is going to withstand a heavy snow,” said Gillis.
The road commission said they try to be as fair as possible when assessing damage. If you have a complaint, the best thing to do is contact your local road commission agency.
