As work continues on Byron Road, Franklin County commissioners sent the state a $660 bill, Chairman Bob Carlton said Tuesday, the latest in a dispute over the remote road that leads to Tumbledown Mountain.

The bill sent to the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands is for the state’s share of the cost of grading the road, also known as the No. 6 road in Township 6 North of Weld.

The county entered into a verbal agreement in 2023 with the bureau to share maintenance on the road. They have not done that, Carlton said.

Torrential down pours and flooding washed out the road in 2023.

Commissioners then backed a legislative bill to force the bureau to take over upkeep of road, which runs from Weld in Franklin County to Byron in Oxford County. The bill died in April for lack of funding.

Both towns maintain roughly 3.5 miles of the road, with Franklin County taking care of 2.4 miles.

Bob Lightbody, the unorganized territory road supervisor, told commissioners Tuesday that a section of Byron Road with a large hole has been fixed but more work needs to be done, including more ditching and cutting back brush.

Commissioner Thomas Skolfield applauded Fenwick Construction for their work repairing the hole.

The road has been around since the 1700s and it has a huge impact on the fabric of the county, he said. The importance of the road seems to “have diminished” over time, Skolfield said, but it remains significant.

About70,000 visitors go to Tumbledown Mountain, a popular hiking spot, every year.

While he was overseeing the work, Lightbody said it was like the “wild west,” with vehicles going very fast.

There are three state-owned parking lots in the area. They need to be maintained and should be paved because they are causing a lot of dust, he said.

The county has spent about a third of the $100,000 set aside for the road on the repair. The road is very wide in the county’s section while the other parts are narrower, Lightbody added.

Lightbody suggested some of the money be put into safety factors including signage. Commissioner Tom Saviello mentioned speed bumps.

Commissioners will renew their effort at the Legislature to get the state to take over maintenance of the road since the county has no taxpayers living on the road.

Skolfield and Lightbody will work with Fenwick Construction to see what more can be done to maintain the road and make it safer for those traveling on it.

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