NORWAY – Selectmen have denounced the state’s attempt to shut down the Route 118 lakeside rest area saying the action is being taken too quickly and without providing the public enough information.

“I want to hear from them and their reason to close,” said Selectman Les Flanders. “I strongly oppose them closing that rest area.”

The Maine Department of Transportation recently notified Norway officials that its rest area on Route 118 opposite Lake Pennesseewassee is one of nine in the region to be abandoned. Picnic tables, a restroom, grills and shelter overhangs will be removed from the site unless selectmen tell the state by June 1 that the town will maintain the picnic tables.

Bob LaRoche, DOT supervisor of landscape architecture, told the Sun Journal earlier this week that the restroom will be removed regardless of any local decision.

“Of all the things we’ve dealt with recently I’ve had more calls on this one,” said Town Manager David Holt, who along with board members has received calls from people upset about the proposed closure. Some offered financial assistance and manpower to help maintain the area.

Selectman Russell Newcomb called the state’s short notice “disturbing” and asked that a meeting be set up with state officials to get more information and allow the board more time to decide what to do.

Chairman Bob Walker said that phone calls he has received ranged from the offer of $1,000 to help maintain the rest area to establishing an adopt-a-rest-area program.

“Maybe we (Norway) should think of pulling out of Maine. That might work. You wouldn’t see New Hampshire doing this,” Walker said.

LaRoche said earlier this week that the state reviewed its rest areas to see if they still met their original needs. He said because Norway’s rest area was so close to town the state felt motorists could travel there to avail themselves of facilities.

The decision, he said under further questioning, was recommended by the maintenance crew in Dixfield, which said it took too much effort, particularly to maintain the restrooms.

Municipal officials in several other towns, such as Waterford, have been given the same opportunity to maintain the picnic benches. Other rest areas will simply be closed.

Holt said the rest area is frequented by both tourists and many local people who go there to have lunch and enjoy the view. Since trash cans were removed several years ago by the state, officials said most people have been good about taking their trash out of the area.

Police Chief Robert Federico also noted earlier this week that there have been no problems at the rest area.