BETHEL — Selectman Peter Southam on Monday drew the ire of Daisy Bryant Road residents and fellow selectmen for taking Gould Academy students mountain biking on the road and on trails in the Bingham Forest area last week.

Southam is the head cycling coach for Gould.

This summer, the nonprofit Mahoosuc Pathways, of which Southam is board president, began to build mountain biking trails on land owned by the Bethel Water District, which is next to the 2,300-acre Bingham Forest in Newry.

But Daisy Bryant Road residents objected to the use of their road to access the trails, citing safety and traffic concerns. They hired an attorney, who questioned the town’s right to use the road and sent a letter to the town, telling Mahoosuc Pathways to stop using it. The town claims it has an easement on the road.

In July, selectmen voted to have the town attorney review a town easement and related deeds for the Daisy Bryant Road.

While town officials said that only a judge or court could legally stop use of the road, they agreed to stop building trails and stop traveling the road “to be good neighbors” while a resolution to the dispute was sought. A notice that the trails are closed was also posted on town and Pathways websites.

But several road residents at the selectmen meeting Monday said Southam violated that agreement by taking Gould students on the road.

Cindy Trinward read a statement, saying her husband, Kevin, saw Southam and 30 students exiting the top of the road Friday evening, Sept. 11.

“We are shocked that a public servant on two different committees, coach at Gould Academy and member of the select board, deliberately chose to violate the lawyer-appointed cease and desist order that is currently in place regarding no public use of the Daisy Bryant Road,” she said.

Southam acknowledged he and the students were on the road.

He said they came in, went around on the adjacent property of STAG Properties LLC of South Paris, “which we’ve ridden on since I’ve been coaching — 13 years.

“Normally we go up it and access either the Bingham land or the Water District land,” Southam said. “That’s been someplace we’ve always ridden. It’s private property that the STAG company’s never really had any problem with people riding on.”

Southam said they came out on lower on Daisy Bryant Road than he expected.

“I was expecting to come in, to go up higher and go over the bridge and come in all the way into the Bingham Forest, and then come down and ride the trails,” he said. “I was really clear that we had stopped building, I was really clear that we needed to stay off the Daisy Bryant Road — to try to stay off the Daisy Bryant Road — but we missed that.

“I wasn’t going to send the kids back a different route home than the road we came in on,” he said. “So we came in just at the top of the Trinward property . . .  The kids went off the road, a few laps around on the mountain bike trails, and we came back in the same order.”

He said he did stop and “had a perfectly cordial conversation with Kevin.”

He said the riders did not go onto anyone’s yard.

“I think being upset about kids going in and riding trails that are designed and built for mountain biking . . . I’m not quite sure I get it,” he said.

Selectman Don Bennett was not sympathetic. He said the two websites state the trails are closed.

“I think the understanding, at least from this selectman’s point of view, was that when we stopped working up there and said to those people, ‘We have a dilemma here’ . . .  that we said we weren’t going to go any further, and . . . we weren’t going to be ‘in your face.’

“I fail to understand why, when some of us are working very diligently at trying to ultimately save the town some money and make things happen that are at least somewhere cordial, that we find ourselves in the position — accidental or not — it’s a taunting, unfortunately, and I’m sorry it happened. It shouldn’t have.”

Southam said, “There was no intent to taunt.”

An audience member asked him why he went there.

“Because they’re great trails,” Southam said.

“They’re closed!” several people responded.

Southam was asked what message he thought he sent to the students by taking them on the road.

Southam said he would not comment.

Board of Selectmen Chairman Stan Howe said none of the other four selectmen knew Southam was going up there. “I was surprised,” he said.

Bingham Forest Authority member Jarrod Crockett said the town cannot legally restrict use of the road, only discourage it.

But Kevin Trinward said the road might be gated.

“Who would need a key to the gate we’re going to put up?” he asked. “I would like a list at some point, because it’s going up.”

“I’m anxious to see where you put a gate up,” Crockett said.

Cindy Trinward wanted assurance that Southam would not return to the road.

Bennett told her, “The best this board can do for you is tell you that I am absolutely sure there are four of us here who did not expect this to happen . . . I fail to see where someone can come to a point where they get lost and they come to a road, knowing it is controversial, and they keep on going.”

“From this board’s point, as far as I’m concerned, I can look at you all and tell you, ‘It ain’t going to happen again.’ If somebody chooses to do something like this, then as far as I’m concerned on this board we’ll have to deal with it in some other way, if it’s a member of this board,” Bennett said.

“If I were living up there, and something like this happened, I suspect I would not be cordial if they came down the road . . . I would probably voice my opinion in some rather strong terms and say, ‘If you come up here again there will be some litigation or something.’ . . . We can’t post somebody up there to stop people who are doing irrational things,” he said.

“I hope your committee looks at it . . . I’d ask him to resign,” Cindy Trinward said.

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