LIVERMORE — Selectpersons voted Tuesday night to continue the process to stop maintaining Wyman Road in the winter.
Survey results seen July 20 show the Wyman Road in Livermore as it is today and in the original plan. The darker area at left is state Route 4. The original Wyman Road layout is seen from upper left to bottom marked by solid lines. Addie and Christopher McHugh’s residence is the rectangle seen at right with the actual road/driveway marked by dashed lines. The original turnaround area is seen to the left of the residence. Pam Harnden/Livermore Falls Advertiser
Christopher and Addie McHugh own the only residence on the road, and Christopher and his attorney, Ron Guay, were the only community members attending the public hearing and meeting.
For more than a year, selectpersons have been considering discontinuing winter maintenance on the road.
In September 2022 selectpersons took no action on their proposal to plowing a section of the road after the property owner and his attorney questioned the legality of doing so. At that meeting it was noted state law had changed and discontinuing a road to winter maintenance is now a yearlong process.
That October, selectpersons voted to begin the process. The board said it had an old tax map that indicated it was town property for only the first 135 feet. Officials voted to snowblow the town’s section only instead of plowing it. The town had been plowing about 290 feet to a turnaround near the McHugh home.
In November, the board contracted with Jamie Roy of Livermore to snowblow the town’s section. The two-year contract was based on 20 storms at $250 per storm each year with the work done as needed.
On Feb. 15, the Androscoggin County Commission voted that Livermore must continue plowing the length of the road. The McHughs had filed a petition appealing the town’s decision. Photos and a Maine Department of Transportation map were presented to the commission by McHugh’s attorney, who did not agree with the town’s tax map showing the town’s section to be only 135 feet long.
In March, selectpersons said the town would continue snowblowing because plowing couldn’t be started then. Because the road had not been plowed, getting a plow down the road would not have been possible.
In July, selectpersons reviewed a recently completed survey that showed the deeded road as laid out for Cottage Terrace subdivision (dating back to the 1920s) is different than the area used now to access the McHughs’ home. The original road is about twice as wide with a roughly triangular section of the two overlapping near state Route 4.
The Select Board will vote on moving ahead with the discontinuance of the road, Selectperson Scott Richmond. “It has to be voted on by the full town,” he said.
Guay asked if documents would be available before the vote.
Selectperson Brett Deyling said state laws are accessible to anyone.
“The ballot is put out before the vote takes place,” he said. “There is a meeting before the warrant articles are voted on to discuss them.”
People had opportunity to attend every meeting held on this issue, Deyling stated.
Guay said meeting minutes aren’t available on the town’s website.
Deyling indicated those interested could talk with office staff.
Administrative Assistant Carrie Judd said the hearing was advertised in two papers and was to have been posted on the town’s website and Facebook page.
Guay spoke of the Androscoggin County Commission ordering the town to continue plowing Wyman Road.
“That was before we had it surveyed,” Richmond said. “We can now establish where the road is. We can share a copy with the county commission.”
Guay suggested the town plow the road the way it is supposed to be done, that the board take a look at what its obligations are.
Maine law requires a seven-step process to discontinue a road, according to information shared in October 2022. The information states if an abutter’s property is not accessible by another way, the process needs to pause for a year to allow the property owners to confirm private access to property.
After a year the process may be resumed with voter approval needed at a town meeting, the information notes. The earliest that could happen is April 2024, Richmond said.
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