Selectmen are considering making the road a public road or an easement.
JAY – Selectmen are seeking citizens’ input on what, if any, action should be taken on Parker Pond Road to make it a public road or easement.

Selectman Parker Kinney made the motion and Selectmen Barry McDonald seconded it, after an executive session with legal counsel, to solicit the input, said Town Manager Ruth Marden.

“We want to know what people want us to do,” Marden said.

Parker Pond Road, a dead end, is located off the East Jay Road and leads to Parker Pond, which is considered a Great Pond by the state.

Marden has drafted a petition for residents to sign, if they want. It is available at the Town Office.

The petition’s wording is:

“We, the undersigned citizens of Jay, hereby request that the selectmen take all necessary steps, including determination of construction costs estimates, title, survey and appraisals, to layout as a town way or as a recreational easement, a strip of land from the East Jay Road to Parker Pond. This strip of land shall generally follow the Livermore Falls Water District’s easement. After the steps are completed, we request that the selectmen, in their sole discretion, present the layout to a town meeting for acceptance or rejection as a town way.”

Several landowners own the road. A few of them have posted the way to travelers except to those who own land along it and those who have permission to fish, trap or engage in similar recreation activity.

Some landowners, not all, have complained about excess partying, litter and noise. A couple landowners were upset the road was posted.

In February, citizens packed a meeting over the posting of the road.

The Livermore Falls Water District and Central Maine Power Co. have easements over the road. Parker Pond is a secondary water supply for the Water District that serves customers in Jay and Livermore Falls.

There is a boat launch on the pond and the water way connects to a state wildlife management area on Norridgewock Stream in Chesterville. The state has no wildlife management area’s in Jay and the boat launch is not owned by the state, said regional wildlife biologist Chuck Hulsey of the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

Ray Paul, whose family posted the road, declined comment on the petition until he found out what it was about.
dperry@sunjournal.com

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