MEREDITH — Summer and year-round residents of Meredith Neck Road and Barnard Ridge Road have been complaining to town officials that their roads are in bad shape.

Officials are frustrated, too, because the roads are owned by the state. State budget cuts have left Meredith and other towns to fend for themselves when it comes to repairing state-owned roads, officials say.

“The state is dumping all that money into the Interstate highways but they aren’t doing anything for the local roads they own,” said town Public Works Director Michael Faller. “And then our snow plows get beat up in the winter on those roads.”

“It’s a downshifting problem; the Legislature has cut the budget so there’s no more money for our roads,” said selectman Carla Horne.

The two roads are two of four state-owned roads in town, none of which have highway numbers, and thus are termed “unnumbered.” Winona Road and Pease Road are state-owned and maintained by the state on a year-round basis, whereas Meredith Neck Road and Barnard Ridge Road, which connect on Meredith Neck, are maintained by the state only in the summer.

The last time the state repaired the two Meredith Neck roads was in the late 1990s, Faller said. Both roads now have choppy pavement in places and have serious drainage problems, he said.

Town officials have estimated it will take $7.5 million to fix the roads.

“About a million dollars per mile,” Horne said.

The town, through local legislators and directly, has appealed to state highway officials for help with the roads, but they have been told that unnumbered state roads are low on the state’s priority list, she said.

“We’re going into the budget season so this will be addressed by the town,” Horne said. “But we don’t have that kind of money in the town’s budget either.”

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Dan Seufert may be reached at dseufert@newstote.com.