BUCKFIELD – After a lengthy discussion Tuesday night, selectmen voted to abandon a portion of Hammond Hill, Irish Hill, Gammon and Old Mountain roads.

Jackie Dwinal, a landowner on Hammond Hill, urged the board not to abandon the roads. Dwinal said the roads provide access to camps and forestry work as well as logging. The fear of the seven landowners on Hammond Hill is that their road will become impassable.

Selectmen contend that no work has been done on the roads in the past 30 years, which by law makes them abandoned. Dwinal said she also owns property in Sumner on a road that has been declared abandoned and though there is no plowing in winter, the road is graded and ditched once each summer.

Board Chairman Skip Stanley said it was a financial situation for the town, but after listening to the pleas of landowners, he said he would like to visit the site and see how much money would be involved with minimum upkeep.

Selectman Oscar Gammon said the board would be opening a can of worms if it chose to do work on Hammond Hill.

Stanley disagreed. “There are seven taxpayers who are only asking for minimum upkeep. I think we should at least go and take a look,” he said.

Selectman Chris Hayward said he had no problem with the site visit.

Town attorney Geoff Hole said the board should determine what action the town has taken in the past and then decide what it wants to do in the future.

Hole also advised the board not to put up gates or bars. He said homeowners had the right to do some work on the road themselves as long as it did not prohibit public access.

In other matters, the Budget Committee met with selectmen and their consensus was to have the budget cut. Town Manager Glen Holmes said he would have to trim $27,000 from his proposed budget.

Five people were appointed to the Planning Board, which will give it seven members and two alternates. Appointed were Warren Wright, Jim Burke, Anthony Buckley, Richard Piper and Joyce Hartson.

The board voted to have the sidewalk in front of the mailbox at the post office removed for safety reasons. There is to be no parking at the outside mailbox.