FORT KENT – The Town Council plans a public hearing tonight on a proposal to remove two town roads from a list of roads that are closed to winter maintenance.

After the public hearing, the council will meet in regular session. On the agenda is the West Side Access Trail for snowmobilers. That issue has been on the agenda often since November.

At issue is the access to the downtown area for snowmobilers using the Heritage Trail. A homeowner acquired a court ruling to stop the use of a residential district.

A committee was formed to find other access trails, and the result of its investigation is being looked at by the council to find a permanent access trail to the downtown.

Meanwhile, the public hearing will consider changing the winter closing of the Wilson School Road and the East Michigan Settlement Road.

The request was made by two families living on the roads.

Last winter Marcel Cyr, a resident of Wilson School Road, plowed the 1,000-foot section of his road and another 900 feet of the East Michigan Settlement Road to the home of Melissa Jandreau.

They are the two residents who requested that the roads be taken off the winter roads list.

If the roads were to be accepted for winter maintenance, the town would be liable for plowing the two roads. In addition, the two roads would need ditching work and the installation of culverts during the coming road construction season.

Last fall, the council denied a request by Jandreau to plow the road. The road is on a list of town roads closed to winter maintenance by town meeting action in 1989 and 1999.

In 2001, Jandreau built a home 700 feet up the East Michigan Road from where the snowplow stops. She had claimed her family needed the road plowed for family members to get to work and school.

When the road last was closed to winter maintenance, there were no homes on the East Michigan Settlement Road.

There are about a dozen homes built on roads that are closed to winter maintenance in Fort Kent.

One of the reasons Jandreau’s request was denied last fall is that requests to open roads closed to winter maintenance must be made before Oct. 1 each year.

The roads hearing will be at 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 28, in the town office meeting room.