There are 30 homes on North River Road in Auburn, a couple of businesses and several working farms, including the Ewe Turn Farm on the northerly end of the road. There is regular traffic on that road, with folks commuting to work and farmers taking and making deliveries.

No one who lives on that road or who dares travel there deserves to tolerate the road’s condition.

The road is in appalling condition because the city stopped maintaining it more than eight years ago after an abutting landowner contested ownership of the road, which was re-routed decades before. The city was not required to halt maintenance, but it did anyway.

The result is broken pavement along the entire stretch and massive potholes near the snowmobile access trail. At the most northerly point of the road sit piles of trash, including discarded mattresses, a rusting box spring, a desk, chairs and a sofa that’s partway into the road and has been there so long that it bears the spray paint of vandals.

Evelyn Piper-Keene of Lewiston recently traveled the road with a couple of friends because it had been a while since they had driven the picturesque stretch along the Androscoggin River. “I said my prayers the whole way,” she said, and still can not believe that anybody could live on that road, traveling it every day.

The road is especially poor north of the intersection with Deer Rips Road and becomes nearly impassable in the distance leading to the road’s end at the intersection with Andrew Drive. This roughest portion – which is the contested portion – is also where the dumped furniture rots.

We understand Auburn’s hesitation to maintain the contested road, but until the question of ownership is clear, North River Road is a city-owned road and should receive minimal maintenance.

Auburn is preparing now to tackle storm drains, sidewalks and pavement replacement on High, Drummond and Vine streets. Work is also planned on Danville Corner Road, Black Cat Road and Arbania and Rochelle streets.

None of these streets is in worse condition than North River Road.

None.

The city has done some recent work on the southerly end of North River Road, peeling back the pavement at the intersection with Stetson Road and replacing pavement with gravel. If the city can’t tackle the appalling conditions of North River Road along its entire stretch, the very least it could do is match the job it did at the Stetson Road intersection and break up the asphalt and use gravel to level the worst sections at the northern end of the road.

If that work were done, North River Road might then just match the current condition of Black Cat Road that is now being prepared for resurfacing. And, then, just maybe, an emergency vehicle might be able to get through to Ewe Turn Farm using the fastest possible route.

At the very least, the city has an obligation to alert travelers that they are about to enter a dismal stretch of pavement that could potentially damage vehicles with low clearance. Those signs could be posted – and posted quickly – on sections just outside the contested portions. Then, at least, travelers would be warned about what’s ahead.

If the city doesn’t get aggressive about resolving the abutter’s challenge, doesn’t tackle the condition of North River Road or doesn’t install warning signs for motorists, it might as well change the road’s status to reflect its current condition: abandoned.