LEBANON — A dispute over ownership and access to four historic roads that crisscross about 950 acres of farmland near the Enfield town line will go before the City Council this week.
A committee tasked with studying Lebanon’s old trails and paths says the roads — Barden Hill, Durkee, Atherton and McCallister — are Class VI roads dating back to the 1800s and are public property.
Class VI roads are public ways that municipalities aren’t obligated to maintain, under state law. The city’s Class VI Roads Advisory Committee is recommending that the four roads in question should be converted to Class A trails and re-opened to hikers, mountain bikers and snowmobiles.
However, those aims conflict with that of the Patches, a family of longtime Lebanon farmers who have asked that the roads be discontinued to support their maple sugaring operation.
The Patches, who own Patch Orchards east of Route 120 south of downtown Lebanon, have said they invested at least $2.5 million in equipment to support 50,000 taps and sap lines that would someday cross the roads, and that continuing to allow the public on the roads would damage their property.
The City Council will decide Wednesday night whether to schedule a public hearing for one of the two proposals, either to reclassify the roads as trails or to discontinue and turn them over to the Patches.
Former City Councilor Steve Wood, who chairs the Class VI roads committee, said it took months of reviewing historical documents, taking testimony and listening to surveyors to conclude that the roads belong to Lebanon.
None of that work was taken lightly, said Wood, who co-owns Poverty Lane Orchards.
“It’s not a small thing to assert a right-of-way across somebody’s property,” he said, adding that’s doubly true when the landowner doesn’t believe the right-of-way exists.
“It’s not good news to just say ‘Look, pal, that’s a right of way, so get used to it,’ ” Wood said. “It’s a big deal to have any kind of right of way across your property.”
Throughout the months-long review, Matthew and Barbara Patch have contended that portions of the roads weren’t publicly traveled right-of-ways.
Their surveyors argued there’s no evidence that some areas were utilized until recently when snowmobile trails were cleared.
Their accounts were challenged by long-time residents who recalled using the roads during childhood or in decades past.
The board also relied on what is referred to as the “big three maps” created by cartographers in the 1800s to make its recommendation, according to Mark Goodwin, the city’s GIS Coordinator and the planning office’s liaison to the committee.
Goodwin said records, such as the minutes of a Town Meeting vote to open a new road, are the “gold standard” of determining whether a road is public property.
But when those can’t be found, as it is in the case of these four roads, officials have to turn to what’s called “prescriptive evidence,” he said. That can include old maps, history books and even the recollection of “old-timers,” he said.
Barbara Patch, the co-owner of Patch Orchards, on Monday declined a request for comment on the committee’s recommendation and upcoming City Council vote.
The family initially came into conflict with the city after paying $1.8 million in 2017 for 950 acres east of Route 120 to aid their growing maple syrup operation.
The Patches then tapped more than 15,000 trees, running lines down to a collection area on Merry Lane.
While the family says they sought permission to install the lines, the city disagreed and threatened last year to remove them.
Things ultimately came to a head when the City Council decided in March to allow the Patches to maintain the sap lines as the Class VI Roads Advisory Committee studied the issue.
That effort, which began in earnest over the summer, was “very deliberate,” according to City Councilor Erling Heistad.
“The committee was very inclusive. Anybody and everyone who wanted to speak had input,” he said, adding members spent hours listening to people recall their memories of the roads.
Heistad said the committee’s recommendation of conversion to Class A trails isn’t only meant to benefit the public, but also the Patches. It allows the family to use machines on the trail as they access their woodlands.
“We were trying to respect the rights of the landowners,” he said.
The Lebanon City Council is scheduled to take up the recommendations at 7 p.m. on Wednesday. Access to the meeting can be found at LebanonNH.gov/Live.
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.