OGUNQUIT — While the businesses in Ogunquit have benefited from an extended summer season, the last few Select Board meetings have been devoted to an out-of-season concern: plowing, specifically of private roads by town staff.

Town Manager Tom Fortier said at the Sept. 15 Select Board meeting that the town had been plowing private roads for many years and it had been included on the town warrant since 2003, renewed every year since 2012 on a town vote.

However, when the town checked this practice against the state constitution, it found that the practice violated the “public purpose” doctrine of the law. The Maine Department of Transportation gives an example of how this can get the town in trouble: For instance, if repairs are made to a private camp road which is open to the public, and the road is subsequently closed to public access, this would be an unconstitutional expenditure of public funds for a private purpose. The town must accept a road once it has been constructed – meeting certain standards that could cost existing private roads thousands of dollars to comply.

Beyond this, Fortier said, the town would lose its protection under Maine Tort – opening up the town to liability for damage to the road or property during plowing since the roads were private.

Historically, the town of Ogunquit has plowed 19 out of the 105 private roads in Ogunquit. Fortier said this was out of “past practices” and public access for emergency vehicles, and it has traditionally appeared on the town warrant each year and is accepted by town vote, albeit in vague language.

This puts the town in a difficult situation, because they have identified it as a liability, Fortier said; a lawyer would instruct them to remedy it immediately and look for solutions later on.

Many residents came out during the last few meetings and expressed their concern – both over the perceived unfairness of plowing certain private roads and what residents who live on plowed private roads will do in the future if the practice is ended.

Pricilla Collins-Slotnick, a resident who lives on a private road, spoke at the Sept. 5 meeting.

“Boy, I wish I could have gotten in on that deal because I think in the last 13 years I think I’ve spent $4,000 or $5,000,” she said. “We aren’t asking that you repair the roads,” she added, noting that she thinks the same service should be provided to everyone.

Bill Woods, who spoke at the Sept. 15 meeting, lives on a private road that is plowed each winter, and spoke about an easement that the selectmen created in 2002 in order to allow paving private roads.

“The only unfairness I see is all the roads in town should be able to petition to be able to have their roads plowed by the town. … The roads that are plowed are the roads that people live on who signed these easements,” Woods said. “This is short notice for people who have to get their roads plowed now.”

Select Board member John Daley expressed frustration with the restrictions of the law.

“The state law is ridiculous; we have more private dirt roads than we have public roads,” Daley said. “I’d like to find a way around it.”

The Select Board decided to look into the issue further and no action was taken at the Sept. 15 meeting.