A dispute over upper Hovey Road has been going on for years.
By Donna M. Perry
Staff Writer

FARMINGTON – The state’s highest court is scheduled to hear oral arguments Thursday in a road discontinuance dispute that’s lasted for years.

The case is slated to be heard at 10 a.m. at Maine Supreme Judicial Court in Portland.

Tree farmer Perry Lamb appealed a Superior Court denial in September 2003. Lamb questioned Farmington voters’ rights to discontinue a half mile of upper Hovey Road without adhering to a county commissioners’ order to fix it.

Lamb of Brunswick owns 1,600 acres in New Sharon with some land bordering the Farmington line. Lamb bought 400 acres on the New Sharon side of the line in 1969; about 170 of those acres are landlocked if upper Hovey Road remains closed.

Twice in the 1970s, attempts to discontinue Hovey Road were rejected by county commissioners and Farmington voters.

In his appeal to the state’s Law Court, Lamb questioned:

• Whether Farmington town officials misrepresented the fiscal consequences of a town meeting discontinuance to the extent that the vote should be voided.

• Whether a Franklin County commissioners’ order on Jan. 2, 2002, to repair upper Hovey Road can be voided by a town meeting discontinuance on March 11, 2002.

On Sept. 2, 2003, Justice Joseph Jabar ruled in favor of Farmington when it denied Lamb’s appeal.

In the court documents, Jabar stated that nothing on the record indicated the town didn’t take the proper steps and procedures.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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