TOWN OFFICIALS CHALLENGE STATE OVER OWNERSHIP OF ROAD

TOWN OFFICIALS CHALLENGE STATE OVER OWNERSHIP OF ROAD
Eryn Dion
News Staff Writer

The state’s Division of Local Mandates visited Templeton Monday afternoon at the behest of interim Town Administrator Bob Markel to discuss the impending closure of the Templeton Developmental Center and its effect on town services.

The division, a branch of the State Auditor’s Office, works to determine whether mandates handed down by the state are unfunded and therefore in violation of Proposition 2 1 / 2. In this case, the closing of the state developmental facility and the passage of various expenses onto the town.

While the group did not offer a formal answer after their visit, Mr. Markel said he was not hopeful that the town would find any reprieve.

“The sense was that we’re not going to get a ruling of that kind,” he told the Board of Selectmen.

The division did offer some guidance on what is considered to be the biggest concern the town faces related to the developmental center’s transition — the maintenance and plowing of miles of roadway on Freight Shed Road.

Patricia Lyons, the facility’s director, and representatives from the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance have previously stated that they believe the road is a town road and Templeton should assume responsibility once the center closes.

“The first recommendation they made is that the town should require the commonwealth to prove that Freight Shed Road is an accepted public way of the town,” Mr. Markel explained.

The road has been a point of contention throughout discussions revolving around the center’s transition from institutionalized treatment into a residential facility, with Highway Superintendent Bud Chase maintaining that the thoroughfare has always belonged to the state.

In a previous meeting, Ms. Lyons noted that officials located documents dating back to the late 1700s supporting their assertion that Freight Shed Road was a town way; however, Mr. Markel said they were never shown anything on paper. He added that the local mandate division suggested they shift the burden onto the state, leaving them to prove it was considered a public way prior to the developmental center’s establishment in the 1890s.

“If not,” he said. “Then town services need not be provided.”

The facility, with DCAMM, had already agreed to provide plowing and maintenance on the road through the end of the current fiscal year. State Sen. Stephen Brewer, D-Barre, attempted to have language included in both the state’s supplemental and contingency budgets    that    would    have

DCAMM assume responsibility for the road even after next June, although selectmen were unclear as to the status of that provision and whether it was still on the table.

Planning Board Chairman Kirk Moschetti reminded officials that, should the state refuse to foot the bill for maintaining the road, an article could be brought onto town meeting floor to abandon the road entirely — essentially designating it as private property.

“There’s no way the state can force those roads on us,” he argued.

Selectman Diane Haley Brooks commented that she was hopeful the town and state would reach an agreement before that measure became necessary, as Templeton employees and safety personnel still traveled it regularly.

The next meeting between town and state officials concerning the facility’s closure and  transition  will  be  held Dec. 1.