BETHEL – Selectmen have scheduled a special closed-door meeting at 11 a.m. today in the town office to discuss a civil suit.

Town Manager Scott Cole said the board is to meet with town attorney Geoff Hole during the executive session to discuss Oakes v. Town of Bethel.

The case concerns a dispute over ownership of the middle of a road built in the early 1800s.

At 9:30 a.m. Monday, Dec. 6, the Oxford County Superior Court in Paris is to conduct trial management and pretrial conferences with lawyers representing David Oakes of Bethel and the town of Bethel, and landowners Richard A. Tibbetts and Dale R. Verrill.

Clerk of Courts Donna Howe in Paris said the case is subject to go to trial any time during the Dec. 13-23 trial session.

Bethel Town Manager Scott Cole said on Nov. 16 that Oakes sued the town, seeking to have the court declare a portion of Taylor Smith Road as belonging to Oakes.

“We’ve been in discussions for years with Oakes, but I don’t know when we got sued,” Cole said. “The middle section of the road is in legal limbo.”

Cole said Taylor Smith Road, which was opened in 1817, connects Route 26 with Chandler Hill Road, where it then becomes Chase Hill Road.

Oakes, Cole said, owns 200 acres, through which Taylor Smith Road passes.

He said the town maintains both ends of Taylor Smith Road, but the middle section fell into disrepair, and was maintained off and on by the town during the 1930s through 1950s. Since then it became impassable.

Oakes, Cole said, has petitioned the court to eliminate any rights the town might have to the road.

He said that initially, Oakes filed two separate lawsuits, one against the town of Bethel and the other against Tibbetts and Verrill, who owned most of Walkers Mountain, over which Taylor Smith Road passes.

An agreement between the parties involved combined both suits into one case.