By Rebecca Goldfine,Staff Writer

NORWAY – Because a new property owner wants to settle at the end of an old, unused road, selectmen must decide whether to take responsibility for the road, which has not been maintained for more than 30 years and by law might be abandoned.

If a road has not been worked on for three decades or longer, then it becomes abandoned, which does not require a town vote, according to the law. And the town is not obligated to maintain it.

Stephen MacDonald and his wife bought land on Lyman Herrick Road last winter, he told selectmen at their meeting Thursday night.

In May, he said he was told by the town assessor that the road was owned by the town.

In September, he received an occupancy permit for a mobile home on the lot, his wife said.

But Town Manager David Holt said MacDonald received incorrect information by accident because there is no paper record for abandoned roads. At the meeting, Holt suggested that in the future town officials should meet to determine an access road’s status before handing out building permits to new property owners.

The Lyman Herrick Road is owned and maintained by the town only to a certain point, and after that it has been left alone for more than 30 years, Holt said.

MacDonald’s house is after a few hundred feet of the unmaintained and disputed section of the road, on a road section that was officially discontinued in 1951. The latter section of the road is not contested.

Selectmen opted to delay voting on the matter because they said their decision will set an important precedent.

“There are so many people buying lots back off the road, we have to be careful how we do this,” Selectman Bill Damon said.

Selectman Russell Newcomb conceded that the part of road in question is not very long. But he pointed out that if selectmen decide to take responsibility for the road, other informally abandoned roads could also become the town’s responsibility, and this would become expensive.

Also at the meeting, Selectman Leslie Flanders proposed turning off the street lights in the parking lot behind Fare Share Market after 10 p.m. to save the town $400 to $600 a year. He said the lights could go back on at 5 a.m. He also wondered about improving the technology to make sure the lights did not turn on during dark, cloudy days.