MASON TOWNSHIP — Oxford County Administrator Scott Cole said the county is nearing an agreement with two landowners who have fought the commission over ownership of Tyler Road, which runs through their property.
Lawyers for the county and landowners Cameron Wake and Celina Adams of Kittery held a mediation session on June 7 after the commission announced in April it would take the road, which the U.S. Forest Service wants to resurface for timber truck use.
“It’s safe to say there’s a settlement pending,” Cole said Wednesday. “It’ll allow the county to fully assert its rights on the Tyler Road,” and the lawsuit for declaratory judgment will be dismissed, he said. The county will proceed with its eminent domain, but on “a friendly basis,” he said.
Wake and Adams, who bought about 21.5 acres in Mason Township in 2005, resisted in 2009 when the U.S. Forest Service began widening and resurfacing the road to allow access for logging trucks. The Forest Service had recently bought land for a timber sale beyond Wake and Adams’ property on Tyler Road.
The couple said they didn’t mind the timber trucks going through but opposed any work on the gravel road. They paid for an investigation by Belding Survey LLC of Harrison, which concluded the road had been abandoned. Under state statute, a road that hasn’t been maintained for 30 years is the private property of a landowner who owns both sides of the road.
They filed a lawsuit in Oxford County Superior Court in March over the road’s ownership. Commissioners responded by opting to take the road by eminent domain.
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