START HERE - Repairing a private road

Coachmans Trail is a small subdivision near the beautiful city of Asheville, North Carolina. Like many such subdivisions, it is very neighborly, pretty hilly and served by a private road. That doesn't mean we've got gates or "Go Away" signs on it - it just means that the people who live here are responsible for fixing it. The road was laid about 20 years ago and while most of it is in good shape, the main entrance road leading into the subdivision had reached the stage of being 100 yards of potholes. So we had to do something about it.
A "town meeting" was called in 2005 where almost everybody agreed that we should all chip in some cash to get the road fixed properly. A committee was formed to get quotes from sundry roading companies covering a number of options ranging from bodging to ripping the whole lot up and starting again. A contractor was selected and everyone was asked to contribute about $1600 per lot. At this point, a couple of people refused to pay so it became obvious that we needed to form a home owners' association to force the objectors to pay.
Needless to say, talk of HOA nazis started going around, especially from a couple of people who had moved here largely because there was no HOA. So the whole thing wound up on the shelf for 2005 and the road continued to get worse (like I care - I drive a Forester).