PARIS – Acting on the advice of Town Manager Sharon Jackson, the Paris Board of Selectmen on Monday rejected a request to perform “intermittent maintenance” on Town Farm Road.
The request was made by members of the Town Farm Road Association, who for years have been working to have the private road adopted by the town.
“What we are asking for tonight,” said association member Erwin Merrill, who is not related to selectmen Chairman Bill Merrill, “is that you would provide us with intermittent maintenance on a scheduled basis.”
For example, Erwin Merrill said, a town truck could sand Town Farm Road after an ice storm when it is already in the neighborhood sanding Parsons Road.
Merrill said he believed the public had given the selectmen authority to approve maintenance of the road.
At last year’s annual town meeting, the voters approved a warrant article that stated: “To see if the town will vote to authorize the municipal officers to maintain public easements and private ways as needed on an intermittent basis.”
Selectman Barbara Payne referred to a memo Jackson had written to the board May 5. The memo said a court found that the proposed use of public funds to maintain a private road would constitute an unconstitutional use of public expenditures, she said. Payne said she could not support such an action.
“So you were in violation when you did it previously?” Merrill asked, referring to past maintenance work the town has done on the road.
“Like Gerald said,” Payne responded, referring to statements made by Selectman Gerald Kilgore, “we were not informed it was being done.”
Jackson volunteered to meet with members of the Town Farm Road Association and discuss the road. She said she believed the article voters approved at the town meeting should not have been on the warrant. Any maintenance, including grading or sanding of the road, is supposed to be done by those who live on the road because it is private, Jackson added.
Whether the road is public or private remains a point of contention. The Town Farm Road Association has argued it is public because the town has continued to perform maintenance on the road and did not follow proper procedure when abandoning it in 1967.
After leaving the meeting Monday, Merrill said the association will meet with Jackson before considering any legal action.
Stephen Twitchell, who lives in Oxford but has to drive down Town Farm Road to reach his home, said the association has spent at least $17,000 to $20,000 to improve the road in recent years. Members believed they were working with the town and that Town Farm Road would be accepted as a town road, he said.
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