Questions still linger over who is going to maintain Byron Road in Township 6 north of Weld, which is the gateway to Tumbledown Mountain, a popular hiking area in Franklin County.

The road, which local officials say features a large and expanding hole, is in the unorganized territory but responsibility to fix it has fallen to Franklin County.

However, the county does not have a single taxpayer living on the road, so commissioners have asked the Bureau of Parks and Lands to help maintain it.

The two entities reached a verbal agreement in 2023 that the bureau would collaborate with Franklin County on maintenance. But severe flooding hit the state that winter and the Bureau of Parks and Lands didn’t have the work crews and time to maintain it.

Now, the two groups have started talking again and hope to move toward a solution.

The county’s unorganized territory supervisor, Bob Lightbody, told commissioners Sept. 16 that the condition of the road was concerning. There is a big hole in the paved section of the hill immediately before it reaches the town of Byron; county Commissioner Tom Skolfield said there should be a sign there that says “huge humongous pothole” to warn drivers.

A bill, LD 510, submitted by Sen. Russell Black, R-Wilton, and other legislators, would require the state to take over maintenance of the road.

It has been carried over by the the 132nd Maine Legislature and is unfunded at this time. It sits on the Appropriations Committee table until the second session of the Legislature, which begins in January 2026.

For now, the suggestion was to put more gravel in the hole until a permanent solution is reached.

The Bureau of Parks and Land cooperated with Franklin County in 2023 by mobilizing contracted crews to address storm damage and completing overdue remedial road grading, Jim Britt, spokesman for the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, wrote in an email to the Sun Journal on Monday.

“That same year, our (Bureau of Parks and Lands) road engineer provided the county with an assessment identifying several needed improvements on Byron Road, such as ditching and culverts, and shared road-planning expertise to support the county,” Britt wrote.

Following meetings with the county commissioners and bureau staff, the bureau proposed contributing annually over five years toward implementing those improvements.

Bureau Deputy Director Bill Patterson said in 2023 that the bureau was not interested in taking over the road but would participate in repairs that could be done in phases. He envisioned pitching in up to $5,000 a year for five years to get the road stabilized and that two parties could work on a three- to five-year plan for the road.

However, during the winter of 2023-24, severe flooding hit western Maine, requiring the bureau to devote nearly all roadwork time and resources to emergency repairs. As a result, the Bureau of Parks and Lands was not able to pursue further work with the county on Byron Road then, Britt wrote.

Patterson recently contacted Franklin County Commissioner Bob Carlton to discuss whether the county would like to collaborate with Bureau of Parks and Lands on the proposed improvements, he wrote.

Carlton on Tuesday he spoke with Patterson about a potential solution, but that it would have to go before the full board for approval.