PARIS — A dispute over who owns Town Farm Road has gone to arbitration.
Oxford County Superior Court ordered the town and the residents of Town Farm Road and Town Farm Estates to come to an agreement by Aug. 16.
The residents want the town to take responsibility for the road, which selectmen voted to abandon in 1967, and want the town to pay $16,000 for maintenance.
In 2004, town meeting voters approved an item to accept the road as a town road once certain repairs were completed, including replacing culverts, adding steel railings and reducing a curve. The repairs came from a list by Frank Danforth, who was the town’s road foreman at the time.
Those repairs were completed at a cost of $16,000, not including labor by residents, the lawsuit states. In 2005, and later in 2009, selectmen voted not to take over Town Farm Road.
The road is off Parsons Road near the Oxford town line.
The issue goes back to 1935, when selectmen originally voted to stop maintaining the road. In 1967, they voted to abandon it formally, although according to the residents they never signed or filed an Order of Discontinuance.
In Maine, roads are considered abandoned after 30 years without maintenance, and become the property of residents who own the abutting land.
treaves@sunjournal.com
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