PARIS — A group of Mason Township landowners at Tuesday’s Oxford County Commission meeting were told the U.S. Forest Service plans to maintain Tyler Road for timber harvesting.

Reginald Gilbert of the U.S. Forest Service explained the plan to maintain and protect the road, which he said could range from posting signs on use during mud season to gating it during mud season and giving residents and first responders keys or a combination for access.

He said the Forest Service cleans culverts twice a year on roads that provide access to timber harvests.

Tyler Road intersects with the Flat Road at the Bethel town line and dead ends near Farwell Mountain.

At their February meeting, Oxford County commissioners expressed disinterest in having the county maintain the road it took by eminent domain in 2011. Including legal and survey costs, the county paid about $57,000 to take the road.

Since then, Gilbert said, the Forest Service has spent $95,000 to repair it so logging trucks could harvest timber at the end of it. Trucks hauled timber out this winter and Gilbert said they’ll be back for a short time next winter as well, after which the lot won’t be harvested for more than 10 years.

Several residents, after reading reports that commissioners wouldn’t maintain the road, came to Tuesday’s meeting to support having the road maintained.

One was John Laban, a forester, who spoke of the importance of maintaining it for residents and the county. If ditches and culverts aren’t cleaned, and the road erodes, “the DEP is going to get interested,” Laban said.

His wife, Rosemary Laban, said she was happy to hear the Forest Service was maintaining the road and wanted to know who to contact if she saw problems. She said the road is “a real treasure” and she’d like more people to enjoy it. She thanked the commission and the Forest Service for their work on it.

In a letter to commissioners, property owners Cameron Wake and Celina Adams, who had originally sued the county over ownership of the road, said landowners had been making road repairs for years, including cleaning culverts and repairing a bridge.

Wake said in an email that they planned to attend Tuesday’s meeting but couldn’t due to the snowstorm.

Greg Frangoulis said he has been happy with work done on the road and neglecting it would be a waste of the money already spent. After the meeting, Frangoulis said he was pleased with what he’d heard from Gilbert and looks forward to the implementation of their maintenance plan.

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