BETHEL – Voters at the annual town meeting next week will decide whether to abandon a 1.3-mile section of Chase Road, which runs from Chandler Hill Road to Route 26.
According to a statement from the Board of Selectmen, the road dates back to town meetings from 1819 and 1824. Votes at those meetings show that the road was laid out and approved by residents under eminent domain, which allows a government to seize private property for public purposes, the statement says.
A recent examination of the 1819 and 1824 votes by a surveyor, the document continues, shows that the current physical location of Chase Road is consistent with the area described by those votes.
“The town voted this road into existence in 1819,” Town Manager Scott Cole said, and “it’s appropriate that the town decides whether they want to keep this road in existence in 2005.”
The statement claims the town maintained all 2.2 miles of the road from the early 1800s until the 1940s, at which point it started to maintain only the eastern and western portions and neglected the middle.
At the request of Chase Road residents Robin and Barry Nevel, the statement says, the town resumed winter maintenance of the middle portion in 1998. The town also did maintenance work on the road in 2001 and 2002, including laying gravel, grading and clearing trees.
About a half-mile of Chase Road’s middle portion runs through the property of David Oakes, the document says. Oakes filed suit against the town in 2002 claiming that, based on state law, the town could no longer claim the section as a public way because it had not maintained the road for more than 30 years.
In addition to the Nevels, several families live on the 1.3-mile stretch of road on properties which abut Oakes’, and they are willing to let the town begin maintaining the contested section again.
“If this was taking raw land by eminent domain I’d be against it too,” Selectmen Jack Cross said, “but this is a town road.”
Because Cross is a Chase Road resident, he has recused himself from all discussions of the matter at selectmen’s meetings.
In 2003, a court-mandated conference to resolve the matter was unsuccessful, the statement says, as were additional settlement talks.
The document says that in the fall of 2004 selectmen, after consulting with the town attorney, decided townspeople ought to have the final say in the matter.
Article 34 asks voters if they want to settle David B. Oakes v. Inhabitants of the Town of Bethel, et al., by either leaving the contested 1.3-mile portion of Chase Road alone, or taking it and paying Oakes $4,600 in damages.
Article 35 asks voters if they will vote to accept from families who live in the contested section of Chase Road a “donation of services comprised of labor, equipment and materials” to return the road to standards “deemed acceptable by the Board of Selectmen.”
Cole said the “donation of services” would be a one-time offering, after which the town would pay to maintain the entire 2.2-mile stretch of Chase Road.
Board Chairman Harry “Dutch” Dresser said he did not have a specific position on the matter, but thought it should be cleared up by the voters. He said it was an important matter because “there’s a group of voters who do want it and a group who don’t,” so the town should know what the majority opinion is.
Elections will be held from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, June 14, at Crescent Park School.
The town meeting will start at 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 15, at Crescent Park School.
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