Greenbush to decide road’s fate Family objects to possible discontinuation of eroding way

GREENBUSH – Residents here will be asked to vote formally on whether to discontinue the Middle River Road, a section of which has eroded and slid toward the nearby Penobscot River.

It’s been an ongoing headache for more than a year, when the shear first became a substantial problem, cracking and carving out sections of the road.

Mike and Kimberly Twitchell own a home by the roughest section of the road, near where it connects to Route 2. They had sought relief including pressing the town to fix the road, but have met with little to their liking. On May 6 the Penobscot County commissioners ordered the town either to fix the road or to discontinue it.

That’s what residents are being asked to decide at the meeting that begins at 7 p.m. today at the municipal offices. Should residents vote to discontinue the road, they will also have to decide whether to pay the Mitchells the $8,000 an appraiser has determined the family would lose in property value because of the discontinuance.

The vote today could spell the end of the road, although it may not be the end of the issue.

Mike Twitchell said his family has invested a substantial amount of time and money in renovating their home, which was once a one-room schoolhouse and later a seasonal hunting cottage. Nature hasn’t just eroded the road but their home’s value too, he contends. And he said work the town has done further contributed to the erosion.

Their house is currently unmarketable, said Twitchell, who thinks the town can rebuild the road and buttress it to prevent further erosion for less than the $500,000-plus the town has said it could cost. In the meantime, the town has acquired a right-of-way on a property a few hundred yards lower down on the Middle River Road on which it intends to build an access point to Route 2.

If the road is discontinued, Twitchell said, a problem concerning the location of his driveway will arise. Both suggested locations for the driveway, he said, eventually end up traversing the discontinued road, still raising the issue of safety. One route would traverse his garden and septic system, creating more problems and costs for him and his family.

Greenbush First Selectman Al Weatherbee said the town is sympathetic to the Twitchells’ plight, but he said that the erosion is an act of nature and that replacing the road, rather than discontinuing it, doesn’t make sense for the town.

Although the town doesn’t have a firm estimate on a road replacement project, Weatherbee said that discussions with state transportation and conservation officials, as well as National Guard and Army Corps of Engineers officials, have all led to the same conclusion: discontinuation. Making permanent fixes would be expensive because clay in the area and along the river undermines the bank and road.

Weatherbee said the Twitchells’ concerns and frustration over the situation are understandable, and he said the town is also concerned but “we have to be practical about what we can do.”