DEERFIELD — With another party joining the lawsuit that will determine if Steam Mill Road is a public way, the deadline for the discovery period, during which lawyers share information, has been pushed back to March.
According to documents filed in Land Court, National Grid has intervened in the lawsuit because its access to high-voltage transmission lines south of the road could be threatened if it is not considered a public way.
“National Grid holds multiple easements for the transmission line corridor running roughly perpendicular to Steam Mill Road. Consequently, any Land Court declaration concerting the status of Steam Mill Road will impact National Grid’s ability to access its transmission line corridor,” wrote attorney Nina Pickering Cook. “If Steam Mill Road is not a public way, National Grid may be prevented from accessing a significant portion of its transmission line corridor to which there are no other means of access.”
The original complaint, filed on Nov. 30, 2021, seeks a determination from the court that Steam Mill Road is a public way and the town must continue to maintain it past 34 Steam Mill Road, as it has for at least the last 20 years. Residents Jamie, Jason and Randi Billings, who reside at 52 and 51 Steam Mill Road, based the complaint on a report Jason Billings commissioned to Easthampton-based land surveyors Holmberg and Howe Inc., which is signed by company president and professional land surveyor Emily Holmberg.
National Grid joins the state Attorney General’s Office as a second intervener on the lawsuit. Pickering Cook wrote that the power company and its predecessors have “held easement rights to erect, repair, maintain, operate and patrol poles, towers and wires within the transmission line corridor” since 1912 and that its workers “have regularly accessed” the transmission line corridor throughout that period. The company, according to the court documents, accesses the power lines for normal maintenance and repair work, annual inspections and tree trimming or removal every four years.
“If National Grid cannot access the transmission line corridor, its ability to provide preventative maintenance and more emergent repairs would be hindered,” Pickering Cook wrote. “This would have consequences for the provision of consistent and reliable electricity to this region.”
If the road is considered a private way, however, National Grid is also arguing it has “established rights to access” its transmission line through more than 100 years of continuous access, including the use of bucket trucks and other work vehicles.
“Its historic and continuous use of Steam Mill Road satisfies the requirements to establish a prescriptive easement over the full length of Steam Mill Road to the transmission line corridor,” Pickering Cook explained. “National Grid’s use of Steam Mill Road has been open and notorious. … It has never concealed its use of Steam Mill Road as an access point to its transmission line corridor.”
On Sept. 22, 2021, the Deerfield Selectboard voted to discontinue repair, maintenance and snow plowing of Steam Mill Road past 34 Steam Mill Road because residents had voted at 1952’s Town Meeting to accept the road’s proposed public layout. The town has provided plowing and minor maintenance up to 60 Steam Mill Road for years, but the Selectboard has said it cannot use public funds to maintain a private way.
The original court complaint features Holmberg’s report, which outlines the history of the road dating back to the 18th century.
Holmberg’s report states the minutes of an April 10, 1741 meeting of the Proprietors of the East Mountain Division contain recommendations for public roads in Deerfield. The Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association (PVMA) library contains these minutes and other historical records, according to the report. The 1741 minutes describe five roads, of which Holmberg stated her opinion that the “fourth road described and approved at this meeting is Steam Mill Road.”
Holmberg also reviewed Town Meeting records ranging from 1730 to 1970 and found “no record of discontinuance of any portion of Steam Mill Road.”
With National Grid joining the lawsuit, the deadline for the discovery period — the process in which attorneys exchange information — has been pushed back to March 6, 2023. A status conference is set for the same day.
Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.