ALBANY TOWNSHIP — Commissioners are mulling a private landowner’s proposal to temporarily move a county road in order to extract gravel from underneath it. 

Albany Basin Road, a short, dead-end dirt road off Route 5, runs through private land owned by Harry Brown and between two gravel pits that have been largely mined out. 

Property records indicate that Oxford County has a right of way easement on the road, although it is unable to come up with documentation to prove its right to it, according to County Administrator Scott Cole.

Brown, in partnership with Pike Industries, would like to shift 800 feet of the road in order to begin extracting gravel in an area between the two mines.

In a presentation to commissioners on Tuesday, John Koris, an environmental manager for Pike, and Bill Newcomb, a forester for Brown, showed a map of the 5.9 acres that are proposed for excavation. 

Koris or Newcomb could not provide documentation to prove ownership of the road when prompted by Bryan Dench, the county’s attorney. 

Previous rounds of mining have already carved out a wide swath of property south of the road and the disused pit is being reforested. A second extraction site, to the north of the road, is covered with short conifers from a successful reforestation effort. 

The companies want to temporarily reroute the road to the south or north, in order to dig out the remaining material between the two exhausted mines.

According to Koris, the company has yet to present a full application to the Maine Land Use Planning Commission, but the entire mining project is expected to excavate approximately 122,000 cubic meters of material.

Between 22,000 and 28,000 of the material is within the county’s presumed road easement, according to Koris. 

Moving the road would not inconvenience the two landowners who own seasonal residences in the area, Newcomb told commissioners. The two companies already secured their signatures on a document noting their acknowledgement of the project and the two options for the temporary road. 

“The idea is to maintain safety and access,” Newcomb said. “That’s the main goal, then to take out the gravel.”

The temporary road could be in use for as many as 10 years, depending on how long it took to dig out the gravel, Koris said. The companies are requesting a 10-year window, but mining could be completed in five years, depending on  market conditions, he told commissioners. 

Dench said that the parties should put together a formal agreement outlining the responsibilities for shifting, maintaining and replacing the road, especially considering the lengthy time frame. 

“It’s healthy to have something in writing so we all know what’s going to happen,” Dench said. 

In an interview outside of the meeting, Cole said the two parties did not discuss giving the county right of first refusal on a percentage of the gravel extracted in exchange for allowing the road to be moved, but did not reject it as an option.

“There is obviously value under the road and the commissioners want to see it realized, but they also want to see the public interest protected,” Cole said. 

pmcguire@sunjournal.com

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