White Ridge Road to keep its name, pending appeal

by Mary Grow

At a second Vassalboro Board of Appeals hearing on his request to change the name of his road, resident Silas Cain lost on a 2-1 vote.

The dead-end road off Oak Grove Road is currently named White Ridge Road. Barring further action, it will keep the name.

When board members first heard the appeal on Oct. 9, they postponed a decision for more information (see the Oct. 16 issue of The Town Line, p. 2).

At the Oct. 23 meeting, Cain and Jeff White, who lives at the end of the road and who applied for the road name last spring, provided more of the history of the issue.

The original right-of-way across Cain’s land to White’s was also Cain’s driveway, built around 1940. Because Cain did not want traffic past his house, he created a new right-of-way, in 1989. White said he paid to have power run along it to his house – with Cain’s approval, Cain interjected – and to add gravel and have the road plowed – as specified in the right-of-way agreement, Cain added.

About 10 years later, Cain moved to a new house on the new right-of-way, creating two separate dwellings on the road and making it, under Vassalboro’s E911 Ordinance, a road that needed a name.

Last spring, White applied to Vassalboro codes officer Eric Currie for the name White Ridge Road. Currie told the board he talked with the road commissioner, as required, to check the sight distance on Oak Grove Road. It was satisfactory, and he approved the name.

White had told Cain the naming process had been started. Cain, as owner of the land over which the right-of-way runs, expected to choose the name. After the White Ridge Road sign appeared, he appealed.

Board chairman John Reuthe and member Lauchlin Titus voted to deny the appeal, saying Currie had acted according to the town ordinance. Rebecca Lamey dissented, saying Cain, as the landowner, should have chosen the name, or at least been consulted.

Reuthe told Cain the next step is an appeal to Superior Court. Or, he said, if Cain and White want to negotiate, they could work with Currie.

Board members agreed some of the reason for the conflict was that parts of the 1996 E911 ordinance need to be clearer. Reuthe suggested Currie draft amendments, if he has time.