LIVERMORE – The long-running Batten Road controversy will be one of the issues discussed at a special town meeting on April 7.

Two articles will bring that issue to the people, one asking for the town to authorize the board of selectpersons to enter into a written agreement with the landowners who have gated the road and the other to pursue legal action.

The agreement would allow the Constantines and Waltons to continue gating the road for up to five years during which time they would restore the roadbed with a public easement.

The alternate, to pursue legal action to open the road to the public, also includes the provision of funding $15,000 from undesignated surplus. Administrative Assistant Kurt Schaub estimates $3,500 of that amount would pay for a survey and the initial drafts and briefs for court action.

“It would only be a starting point for continued legal action,” he said.

Additional funds from the surplus account are also being sought under the other two articles, one asking for $106,628.50 to fund work on the Sanders Road Drainage Project through the end of the 2004 fiscal year, and the other for the overdrawn Legal Account.

Officials are asking for the drainage money so that portion of the work can begin before the new fiscal year July 1. The total reconstruction estimate is $222,732, which it is hoped could be raised at the June town meeting and the funds borrowed returned to surplus.

Having funds available before July then would allow the work to begin on the first part, the drainage, ditching and culvert placement, this spring, says Schaub.

The Legal Account has been overdrawn due to the still pending Diaz case, clearing land next to Long Pond, and to an enforcement of the town’s dog ordinance, Schaub said.