MIDDLEBURY, Vt. (AP) - Little-used backcountry roads make up to 10 percent of Vermont’s roadways and many have been around for decades but who’s responsible for maintaining those class 4 highways was up for debate before the Vermont Supreme Court on Wednesday.
The town of Underhill is appealing a lower court ruling that it must maintain the 1.5 mile-stretch of Fuller Road.
Maintenance of such class 4 roads, which are not eligible for state aid and not usually maintained in the winter, is at the discretion of select boards based on the state statute that “they may be maintained to the extent required by the necessity of the town, the public good and the convenience of the inhabitants of the town, or may be reclassified.”
The question of maintenance came up in Underhill more than four years ago when three property owners complained to the selectboard that culverts needed to be replaced or repaired on Fuller Road to prevent flooding and requested that the road be widened in areas where it had deteriorated.
The select board decided the town was off the hook for the work, so the landowners appealed to the county road commissioners, who found that repairs were needed to keep the road safe. A trial court concurred in March but scaled back the amount of work.
The town’s attorney argued Wednesday that the ruling should be dismissed based on a previous court ruling involving the town of Calais, which had its own policy for class 4 highways, and the state statute.
“It’s not shall (be maintained) it’s may,” said John O’Donnell.
He said the town maintains the road but not to the level that the landowners want, he said. There are yearly inspections and in a recent year records show the town maintained the road on three separate incidences, he said.
The landowners insist the town needs to do more to keep the road safe. The road runs along a brook. Because the town has installed culverts in the past, it needs to make sure that it doesn’t create hazards, their lawyer said.
“The town has created a situation by dint of undertaking those efforts in the past an obligation to at least at a minimum make sure that they’re not creating flood situations in the future, road undermining and … reducing extreme soil erosion in the public waters of the state,” said attorney Christopher Roy.
He requested that the court order the town to do the work within a year.
The Supreme Court did not issue a ruling Wednesday.
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