Roads less taken fill Chester board’s agenda as MacGinnis sues town

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC

It’s looking like Class 4 roads will fill Chester government’s horizon for months – if not longer – as the Chester Select Board once again devoted a large portion of its Nov. 19 meeting to the topic.

During last Wednesday’s meeting, Wyman’s Falls Road property owner Kirk MacGinnis announced that he had filed suit against the board and Town Manager Julie Hance with the Civil Division of the Windsor County Superior Court. The motion and complaint asks the court to discontinue the Class 4 portion of the road near his property.

MacGinnis’s petition comes under Rule 75, which gives an aggrieved party an avenue for appealing a decision (or lack of decision) by a state agency or political subdivision such as a town where there is no specified process for appeal spelled out in state law. But while the motion made in MacGinnis’s filing is to “Transparently Discontinue Wyman’s Falls Road Segment,”  what is clear is that the board did not vote to adopt the policy on Class 4 roads and did not avoid a decision on any road but rather asked Hance to provide more information on the process so the board could better understand the it.

In fact, the board’s agenda last Wednesday contained both an ongoing discussion about a policy to regulate such roads as well as a summary of the laws on “laying out, altering, reclassifying or discontinuing highways.” The policy is still under discussion and had not been voted on by the board.

The board had been on the way to adopting the policy until the its Nov. 5 meeting in which a number of landowners complained of people using such old, unmaintained roads to cross their land in ways that damaged their properties or made them feel unsafe. The offenders included those driving four-wheel drive vehicles. Some speakers said they would like the town to discontinue such roads while others reminded the board that the roads belong to everyone in town.

At that meeting, board members noted that they believed the policy will give them the ability to take the use of Class 4 roads on a case by case basis. For example, motorized vehicles might be prohibited altogether or exceptions like snowmobiles might be made. The board also said it needed to study up on the rules and procedures for changing the status on roads, including reclassifying a road as a trail or discontinuing a road.

At the meeting last Wednesday, MacGinnis read from a written statement that he wanted added to the minutes “verbatim.” MacGinnis, who has been confrontational in past appearances, said he was “…trying to stay positive and keep the peace,” adding that unless the board had anything else to say he would be on his way. And he left the meeting.

The board also discussed the laws around changing road classifications but there was more talk about ways to make the Class 4 road policy less onerous for landowners who use such roadways to get to their properties. That included ways to allow landowners to work on their Class 4 “driveways” without triggering the need for a permit from the town. Town Manager Julie Hance suggested as a possible solution rewriting the policy to define the difference between maintenance and alteration.

The board will continue to look at the issues around Class 4 roads in future meetings. The Chester Select Board’s regular meetings are on the first and third Wednesdays of the month and The Telegraph publishes the board’s agenda.