BANGOR – Penobscot County commissioners on Tuesday ordered the town of Greenbush to either fix a road that has been sliding into the Penobscot River or discontinue it.

Taking the middle ground on the emotionally charged issue of what to do about the Middle River Road, commissioners set deadlines for either action, drawing to a close what they said was 11/2 years of limbo for the few residents on the road.

The decision moves the issue from what Chairman Tom Davis described as “off dead center.”

“This gets the process moving,” concurred James Munch, attorney for Mike and Kimberly Mitchell, who filed a complaint with the commissioners after they watched sections of the roadside crack, open up and some of the banking slide into the river, bringing the sheer cliff closer and closer to their home that they have renovated and expanded over the years.

In a motion made by Commissioner Peter Baldacci, the commissioners set July 30 as the deadline for the town to complete repairs to the road as recommended by an engineering company and June 30 the deadline for the town to discontinue the road.

With estimates to buttress the road against the erosion running into the hundreds of thousands of dollars and no guarantees that the repairs would prevail against the river, it was apparent to many involved the road will be discontinued.

In fact, the town already has plans to add a new access road connecting the Middle River Road with Route 2, a measure that would lead to discontinuing the road. Town Manager Rob Littlefield said that although there are many requirements needed to discontinue the road, “we certainly will try to have it done by June 30.”

The annual town meeting is set for June 12, although a special town meeting may have to be called between then and June 30 if everything is not completed by the first town meeting, Littlefield said.

“This is not the end of the process,” Munch said.

One issue not covered in the order, but mentioned Tuesday and at last week’s hearing, is the damage done to the Mitchell’s home, including to their garage and septic system as well as the growing proximity to the river.

Mitchell told commissioners last week that the erosion has moved 15 feet closer to his garage in the last 11 months alone.

“When they bought it, it wasn’t riverfront property,” Munch said. “It is now.”

Such property issues will have to be taken up later, with Commissioner Richard Blanchard saying that now both sides, the town and road residents, have to sit down together and negotiate.

“They’ve got to be able to give and take a little bit too,” Blanchard said. “I think they’re both dug in really heavy right now.”

Edwin and Hattie Twitchell live down the road from the Mitchells and are starting to see part of the embankment near them slipping. The couple began building the home in 1948, one year after they were married, and they are frustrated that a new access road still won’t solve the erosion problem. Hattie Twitchell said that little is being done and that they don’t have the financial means to seek legal recourse.

“I guess we’re just between a rock and a hard place,” said Twitchell, who lightly suggested that if they were endangered birds or animals that the state would be taking better care of them.

“If I was a bald eagle, they’d save my nest,” she said.