To the Editor:
This letter is to inform the people of Killingworth about the decision the Selectmen are trying to make at the B.O.S. meeting of 4/14 concerning the town vote of December 2007.  Townspeople voted by a large majority NOT to abandon Jay Dowd and Tibbal's Bridge Rd, and NOT to quit claim those roads( almost a mile)  to the Hammonasset Fishing Association. As some of you know, and a lot of you don't know, a document surfaced after the Dec. 2007 vote.  The document is from a 1964 meeting that is signed by the 1964 selectmen.  The document has been read by the current selectmen.  The document has been determined to be "sloppy" and the town attorney has stated that he has never seen  the discontinuance of roads done that way "in the negative".

The current selectmen have the difficult decision to either let the current vote of December 2007 stand or disregard that vote and somehow come to the conclusion that the Jay Dowd Rd. was abandoned in 1964 by the "sloppy" and "in the negative" document.  The same document is silent on the Tibbal's Bridge Rd.

The HFA claims  the roads were not taken care of and thus considered abandoned.  On the contrary, both roads have been traveled over for over 200 years. In fact the Jay Dowd road was driven over yearly by one of the very selectmen who signed the 1964 document. It doesn't seem that Bob Raudat had any intention of not traveling that road. It does seem that the 1964 selectmen wanted to save the town money on the upkeep of certain roads and not keep people from traveling them. Bob Raudat drove over that road consistently until his death less than 10 years ago.

The decision seems a difficult one for our selectmen. The decision can easily benefit everyone by going with the clear decision of the legislative body of 2007 and retain the road for everyone to use, including the HFA.  We all benefit by sharing the road and keeping it open for future generations. If not, it will become private property.

Jean Horner