CARMEL – Voters Monday night approved a plan to borrow up to $125,000 to lower Horseback Road and fill in the adjacent gravel pits. The 127-32 vote at the annual town meeting is expected to end a nine-year legal battle between the town and the pit owners.

The dispute began in 1988 when officials in SAD 23 expressed concern that the gravel pits were encroaching on the road. The Board of Selectmen sued pit owners Donald Hewes, Barry Higgins and Earle McSorley in January 1993, and closed the road nine months later.

The issue was complicated by the fact that the then-town manager and road commissioner was Glennis McSorley, wife of one of the pit owners. Her contract with the town was not renewed in 1998, but she was elected selectwomen in 2000.

Tom Richmond, the current town manager, suggested that the town take the initiative to solve the problem because none of the pit owners has complied with a Penobscot County Superior Court’s ruling that they return the bank to a 2-to-1 slope. While McSorley and Higgins have worked toward compliance, Hewes has made no effort to comply, according to Richmond.

Last month, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court turned down McSorley’s appeal for relief from judgment.

Carmel Citizens for Responsible Government, formed earlier this year, supported an alternate plan that essentially would have settled the lawsuit with McSorley but not the other pit owners. Selectmen refused to put the issue on the warrant and a Penobscot County Superior Court justice agreed with that decision.

The two candidates for selectmen supported by the citizens group lost in Saturday’s election to incumbents Jay Deane and Suzan Rudnicki. Budget committee candidates backed by the group also lost in Monday night’s balloting.

As voters were casting paper ballots on the first of three articles concerning Horseback Road, Carmel Citizens for Responsible Government issued a written statement.

“The citizens group respects the voters’ judgment on the election,” it read. “We would like to thank all the voters for turning out and exercising their right to be heard. With congratulations, we stand behind the choices made by the citizens of Carmel and hope that those elected officials respect and consider the minority and their wishes.”

With little debate and none of the acrimony that has characterized previous meetings, Carmel voters Monday began a new chapter in the Horseback Road saga.