Me. Rev. Stat. » Title 23
Maine Revised Statutes

Me. Rev. Stat. tit. 23, § 2051 (2026)

Power of commissioners

✓ current as of May 2026
Find cases: SyfertCases citing this section ME-LEGlegislature.maine.gov JustiaTitle on Justia CornellLII Search CasesGoogle Scholar
1.  Layout, maintenance and discontinuance of roads in unorganized areas.  County commissioners may lay out, alter, close for maintenance or discontinue highways within the unorganized areas of their counties and grade hills in such a highway. The county commissioners may close a county road for maintenance and preserve the right-of-way for the use of abutting landowners, any others using that way for access to their property and public utilities and corporations with facilities legally located within that way, at their own risk. At a regular session of the commissioners, responsible persons may present a written petition describing a way and stating that the location, alteration, grading or closing for maintenance or discontinuance of that way, in whole or in part, or an alternative action, is desired. The commissioners may act upon the petition, conforming substantially to the description without adhering strictly to its bounds.  
[PL 1997, c. 327, §1 (NEW).]
2.  Closing roads in unorganized areas for the winter.  The county commissioners may close any county road in the unorganized areas of their county under the same conditions and following the same procedure established in section 2953, subsections 1 to 4 for the closure of roads in municipalities by the municipal officers, except that the county commissioners approve the order closing a road and may annul, alter or modify any such order. A copy of the order must be filed with the county clerk or county administrator. Any person may appeal from a decision of the county commissioners to close a county road for the winter in the same manner as provided in Title 17, section 2852.  
[PL 1997, c. 327, §1 (NEW).]
SECTION HISTORY
PL 1965, c. 168 (AMD). PL 1975, c. 711, §1 (AMD). PL 1997, c. 327, §1 (RPR).
The Revisor's Office cannot provide legal advice or interpretation of Maine law to the public.
If you need legal advice, please consult a qualified attorney.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in 5 cases, 1978–2009 · leading case: Fournier v. Elliott, 966 A.2d 410 (Me. 2009).
Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment
Fournier v. Elliott, 966 A.2d 410 (Me. 2009). · cites it 2× “Title 23 M.R.S.A. § 2051 (1992) was repealed and replaced by P.”
Comber v. Inhabitants of Plantation of Dennistown, 398 A.2d 376 (Me. 1979). “” 23 M.R.S.A. § 2051, the pertinent section outlining the powers and duties of county commissioners regarding highways, empowered county commissioners to “lay out” highways.”
Bd. of Selectmen v. Kennebec Cnty. Commissioners, 393 A.2d 526 (Me. 1978). “As part of the same enactment, 23 M.R.S.A. § 2051 was amended to eliminate the county commissioners’ former jurisdiction over laying out and discontinuing county ways except in unorganized areas of their counties (id, § 1), and a new provision, 23 M.”
Craig v. Davis, 649 A.2d 1096 (Me. 1994). · cites it 2× “23 M.R.SA. § 2051 (Supp.1974). In 1976, a new chapter 304 of title 23 was enacted, providing for the laying out and discontinuance of public ways within municipalities.”
Folger v. Martin (Me. Super. Ct 2003). “” Turning to the law in effect, the County Commissioners’ authority to discontinue county roads was contained in 23 M.RS.A. § 2051, which states in part, “County commissioners may lay out, alter or discontinue highways leading from town to town and grade hills in any such…”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.