LIVERMORE — Selectpersons will hold a special town meeting for townspeople to vote on public maintenance of private roads.

Selectperson Tom Gould said people need to know and be prepared if the easement road issue isn’t resolved before winter. State law prohibits towns from plowing private roads.

The board agreed Monday night to send a letter to townspeople about so-called easement roads.

The letter states landowners on private roads have three options for road maintenance:

• Arrange for private plowing and maintenance;

• Ask the municipal legislative body to accept the road as a public easement; and

• Ask the legislative body to accept the road as a town way, which is unlikely.

Marcus Street, Keith Street, Cozy Cove Road (formerly known as Haskell Road), the end of Richmond Hill Road and Bartlett Pond Road are thought to have had easements permitting winter maintenance. 

Gould said town easement records and town meeting minutes have been reviewed by a Maine Municipal Association staff attorney who determined that the easement procedure followed in 1989 was not properly executed. 

When voted on at town meeting, the easements were not specific enough, Gould said. All street names must be listed. 

Gould said nobody did anything wrong. They worked with the best information they had at the time, but it wasn’t legal.

A member of the MMA legal services department said, “The documents sent are legally ineffective.” 

Property owners on these roads have to be made aware of the situation, Gould said.

To become a legal easement road, every abutter on that road must agree and have it recorded on the deed. Standards for each road, such as where turnarounds are, the width, and access points, also must be described.

To be legal, all roads to become easement roads will have to be listed, and voters must also approve winter maintenance of those roads.

Resident Brenda Merrill submitted a draft article to use at the special town meeting and said there is plenty of time to get this addressed.

Selectperson Timothy Kachnovich said after the letter went out, one person on each road could form a committee to get the necessary easements.

Merrill said cost of winter maintenance on the easement roads was put into the road maintenance budget in 1998. The money should be there to maintain these roads, she said. 

No date was set for the special town meeting.

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