Machiasport is celebrating a legal win in a decades-old dispute between the town and a pair of landowners who had attempted to block maintenance projects on a coastal road.
The owners of two properties abutting Beach Road, a coastal route that connects one of the town’s rugged peninsulas to the center of town, had sued the town in 2024, alleging trespass and unlawful deprivation of property.
In a long-awaited victory for the town, a judge in Portland ruled last week that it “complied in all respects” with a 1997 ruling that outlined the town’s responsibilities for the road.
“It’s been a whole thing in town,” Clerk Marcia Hayward said.
Beach Road, also called Port Road, is an unpaved path that passes alongside and through properties near the Point of Maine, a rocky peninsula that juts southward. The road runs extremely close to Machias Bay’s high-water mark, and requires maintenance from the town to prevent erosion.
A 1997 court judgement outlined Machiasport’s responsibility to maintain the road, but since 2024 the landowners have claimed the town has gone beyond its right of way in undertaking maintenance work.
The dispute grew bitter at times. In his Thursday ruling, Judge Michael Duddy wrote that the plaintiffs reported the town to “a wide array” of federal and state agencies over their maintenance activities around the road.
“Despite the plaintiffs reporting the Town to every state and federal agency they could think of, the Town has never been cited for violating any environmental laws or regulations pertaining to Beach Road,” he wrote.
Over the years, two plaintiffs, Carmine DeFalco and Paula Aschettino, “angrily confronted” town employees who were maintaining the road, he added.
The dispute has also led property owners to put up cameras and signs that are “not welcoming,” according to Hayward. When the town posted news of its legal win on Facebook, many residents took to the comments to celebrate.
It’s not the end of the town’s legal trouble surrounding the road. A plan to move part of the road inland via eminent domain is on hold. Landowners are challenging the amount the town offered in court, Hayward said.
Machiasport received a $475,000 grant from the state to move the road, part of a tranche of funds given to towns to fight erosion.
It’s unclear whether that project will go ahead. Town officials have asked the state for an extension to the grant, but have not yet heard back.
Daniel O’Connor is a Report for America corps member who covers rural government as part of the partnership between The Maine Monitor and the Bangor Daily News, with additional support from BDN and Monitor readers.