POLAND – The town will send a property owner a letter giving him 14 days to remove a brush pile and no trespassing sign blocking a road that the town says are in violation of a public right-of-way.

The Board of Selectmen voted Tuesday night to take the action after East Record Road resident Donald McGlauflin told the board that the brush pile was placed in the roadway by a neighbor who has the last driveway on the road. More than 500 feet at the end of the road is blocked. That final 500 feet is needed for access to farmland by two farmers, including McGlauflin, and for access to railroad tracks.

Also at issue is whether the road is legally abandoned. The town never officially abandoned it. Poland has not maintained that section of East Record Road since Feb. 1, 1974, according to Town Manager Richard Chick. He said the statutory test for legal abandonment of a roadway by a municipality is if the local government has not kept the road passable by motor vehicles for 30 consecutive years. Chick said whether or not the road is abandoned depends on the date one starts counting from. If the road is abandoned because of a lack of maintenance by the town, then Poland would not be obligated to maintain it, but a public easement would remain, Chick said.

Selectman Glenn Peterson asked Chick if the board could order the property owner, who was not publicly identified, to remove the obstruction.

“I don’t want to spend any of the town’s money on this in legal fees,” Chick said.

Peterson responded that the town should inform the property owner that he is in violation of some ordinance.

“If I do that and he says, ‘No,’ then what?”

The board decided to send the letter giving the man the 14 days from receipt of the letter to open the road.