AUGUSTA – The Golden Road is indeed valuable to Maine economic and recreational interests both proponents and opponents of a proposal to study a possible state purchase of the road said Tuesday.

LD 625, a legislative resolve that would form a commission to study possible state purchase of the privately owned road that links Millinocket with the Quebec border, was introduced to the Legislature’s Transportation Committee by its sponsor, Rep. Raymond Pineau, D-Jay, a retired paper worker.

The road, which is about 100 miles long, was built by the Great Northern Paper Co. in the early 1970s, according to Patrick Strauch, executive director of the Maine Forest Products Council. Pineau said he believes the road, or parts of it, was built in 1965. Some 34 miles are paved on the east end.

The road is now owned by four companies, and may include other owners soon, Pineau said, which prompted his concern.

Pineau uses Golden Road to access a camp he owns on Moosehead Lake.

Because of the road’s value to commerce and recreational users of the North Woods, he said securing it with state ownership was worth considering.

During the brief public hearing on the bill, Dick Rogers, a Registered Maine Guide who lives in West Gardiner and owns a camp near the midpoint of Golden Road, spoke in favor of some state action, but not necessarily a state purchase.

“Something has to be done with the Golden Road,” he said outside the committee room, and suggested the state might negotiate an easement that would guarantee public access in perpetuity.

Access to the 650,000 acres adjacent to the west branch of the Penobscot River recently conserved through a conservation easement are largely accessed by the Golden Road, Rogers said. If the road were blocked to public use, that land also would be inaccessible, he said.

“The average Mainer isn’t going to fly in” to their camps, Rogers said, and agreed a state purchase “is worth studying.”

But the notion of the Department of Transportation taking on the care of yet another road seemed like a step in the wrong direction, Rogers said, because it would drive taxes higher.

In his remarks to the committee, speaking against the proposal, Strauch echoed that sentiment.

“The road network is critical to the working forest,” he told the committee, and is designed for off-road vehicles carrying as much as 250,000 pounds of wood.

If acquired by the state, significant modifications would be required to bring it to state standards, Strauch said, including widening single-lane bridges.

He also worried that if DOT took over its maintenance, budget pressure might result in the road not being repaired.

“We cannot afford to have this principal artery of commerce neglected,” Strauch said.

The Golden Road is owned by forest products companies, he said, and managed by their representatives, including: Wagner Forest Management Ltd., MacDonald Lands, Prentice & Carlisle and Katahdin Timberlands.

Strauch said his organization discussed a possible state purchase of the road with a majority of the businesses that own land along the road, and consensus was “the road is not for sale.”

Forming a commission to study a state purchase seemed like “a threatened use of eminent domain,” he said.

“It’s difficult to understand why [this bill] is required,” Strauch said.

Rep. Herb Clark, D-Millinocket, speaking neither for nor against the bill, expressed concern about the rapid pace land was changing hands in the North Woods.

“There’s people out there scheming every day,” he said, and the Golden Road could sell tomorrow.

“We need a plan,” Clark said, to secure ongoing paper company and recreational access to the road.

The committee scheduled a work session for the bill at 1 p.m. Tuesday, March 27.