SABATTUS – The town has removed signs prohibiting heavy trucks from using some roads, after learning that the signs might have been illegal.

State law only permits towns that have charters to post roads with load limits during times when snow is melting and the ground is soft. Sabattus lacks a charter, but Board of Selectmen Chairman Rudy Gayton said voters will consider a charter at the annual town meeting in June.

Road Commissioner James Wood removed the signs that closed several roads to large trucks, other than emergency vehicles and fuel trucks, after the selectmen determined that the town lacked both a charter and an ordinance approved at a town meeting allowing the postings, Gayton said.

“We’re hoping most of the frost is out of the ground,” she said, adding that Sabattus had posted roads during the same periods that the Maine Department of Transportation did in the same areas.

The removal of the signs came after Thick-N-Thin Lumber owner Greg Provost asked the board to open the roads earlier this month. Provost and others who haul gravel and commodities on the roads have opposed the seasonal closures.

Gayton said she checked the ordinances and minutes from several past years after hearing Provost’s concerns and found that the selectmen approved an ordinance to post roads in 1994, but that it was never approved at a town meeting. As a result, the board asked Wood to remove the signs.

“This year, the ordinance will be voted on at the town meeting,” Gayton said. “We are now working on getting a committee together for a charter.”

The Sabattus town meeting is scheduled for June 4.