By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

CASCO — For some, Halloween is the eleventh hour to pick up candy for trick-or-treaters or to put the finishing touches on a costume.

Oct. 31 is also the deadline for Casco residents who live on public easements to meet the requirements to continue to have those roads plowed this winter.

Those requirements are two-pronged. First, there is the necessary documentation in which landowners agree that the road will be accessible to the public. By doing this, the people living off the road give the town permission to plow the road. The documentation is called easement paperwork. Those must be on record with the town.

Secondly, the roads must physically be in line with the 1972 road standards, such as, but not limited to, appropriate width, proper turnarounds for plow truck and the removal of overhanging branches.

This change has been in the works for about three years when the Casco Board of Selectmen adopted the 2015 Road Standards and set in motion a plan to bring all grandfathered public easements up to the ’72 Road Standard.

Recently, Casco Town Manager Courtney O’Donnell provided a quick update on the public easement situation.

There are 42 private roads that up until now have been plowed by the Town of Casco, she said. Twenty-seven (27) have sufficient easements and 15 do not, she said.

Currently, on the town’s website, there is a listing of the status of the public easement. On the home page, there is link to the list.

O’Donnell addressed one concern that residents have asked about again and again.

“If a private road is not plowed and there was a fire emergency, the town would plow it so that our fire trucks could get to it,” she said, adding, “That is the Number One thing I hear residents ask about.”

O’Donnell shifted the conversation back to the easements. Some easements are no longer valid because the property changed hands.

For whatever reason, there are 15 roads without easements. 

“I’ve alerted those roads to let them know,” she said.

“I have sent out letters to the roads. If they went to an association or to an individual, I sent them to the point person. If they didn’t have one, I sent them to folks who own property, residents on record,” O’Donnell said.

“The second meeting in October, I expect to bring in a list of roads that are ready for plowing,” she said. “I posted it to the home page of our website so people can see.”

The selectmen meet on Oct. 7 and Oct. 29.