MINOT – Hersey Hill Road resident George Buker chided selectmen Tuesday night for failing to deal with his petition to reopen a portion of Old Buckfield Road in a proper manner.
Buker said the petition, signed by more than 100 residents, was given to selectmen last February and detailed the steps required to establish a new town road.
“I asked selectmen to lay out the road and present it to the people,” said Buker.
This meant, Buker said, that the selectmen should have laid out the course of the road, notified the abutters that the town wanted to take land for the road and figured out the damages the town should pay the abutters for taking land for the new road.
Selectmen responded by saying that to do so cost money and they had no authority to spend money to begin opening up a new road. Selectmen said they opted instead to put Buker’s petition on the warrant for the March town meeting.
“That way, we can find out if the town wants to do it and find out how much the town wants to pay,” said selectman Eda Tripp.
Buker said selectmen were presenting it to the town meeting in such a way as to discourage acceptance by pointing out how it will cost all sorts of money.
Selectman Dean Campbell said the issue was money and pointed out that, by following Buker’s approach, the board would have to spend money it hadn’t been authorized to spend.
“At least one person along that road will fight us through eminent domain and we don’t have money in legal to do it,” said Campbell.
In addition to Buker’s land, the road would impact property belonging to three others on its mile-long course: David Murphy, the Talbot brothers and Howard Woodward.
Last spring, selectmen asked Road Manager Arlan Saunders to see how much it would cost to rough-in a gravel road from the existing dead end of Old Buckfield Road to Hersey Hill Road. Saunders estimated the cost at about $57,000.
About a year and a half ago, selectmen declared more than a dozen old roadways, in all parts of town, “presumed abandoned” because they hadn’t been maintained for at least 30 years and thus, under state law, could be officially taken off the maps. Old Buckfield Road from its north end to Hersey Hill Road and on into Turner was one of the roads declared abandoned.
At that time, Buker argued that, over the years, he had been told that the section from the dead end to Hersey Hill Road was still a town road.
After selectmen declared that section abandoned, Buker decided that rather than fight the abandonment, he would ask that a new road be laid out along the course of the old road.
After hearing Buker’s appeal, selectmen agreed to formally notify the abutters that the town was initiating the process to revive Old Buckfield Road and invite them to attend a public hearing on Feb. 23 that will address the road issue as well as all other town-meeting articles. The public hearing will be held at 7 p.m. at the Minot Consolidated School.
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