Alna selectmen plan to ask if their counterparts in neighboring Whitefield would be interested in talking over a possible deal: Alna would plow and maintain a short stretch of Bailey Road if Whitefield agrees not to discontinue that stretch without Alna’s approval.

Alna selectmen decided June 17 to contact Whitefield selectmen about the idea in an attempt to make sure Bailey Road in Alna doesn’t become a dead-end road.

It’s been a concern in Alna for many years, due to the presence of a gravel pit in Whitefield along Bailey Road and Route 218, Alna selectmen said.

If its owner ever sought to expand the pit and made a deal with Whitefield to discontinue that stretch of road, Alna residents on Bailey Road would lose access to Route 218, they said. Their one way out would be at the road’s other end, where it meets Alna's Rabbit Path Road and the start of the other section of Bailey Road, in Dresden, Alna officials said.

Alna resident Ralph Hilton raised the topic at the June 17 Alna selectmen’s meeting. Noting that the pit has a new owner, he asked selectmen what they were going to do about the section of Bailey Road near Route 218. He estimated the stretch at about two-tenths of a mile.

Board members said plowing and maintaining it would likely cost little, if anything, and could avoid the possibility of losing access.

“I don't see any down-side to it,” Third Selectman Doug Baston said. “(Whitefield doesn't) lose any revenue and we gain a little security.”

First Selectman David Abbott was not sure if the two towns’ select boards could enter into an agreement or if town meetings would be needed.

Whitefield Selectmen’s Chairman Dennis Merrill on June 18 had not yet heard from Alna selectmen; Merrill said he could not speak for the entire Whitefield board. “But I would certainly be glad to hear what (Alna selectmen) have to say.”

Merrill is unaware of any plans by the pit’s owner to seek to expand the pit in that area.

Harry C. Crooker & Sons formerly owned the pit. Former chief engineer Thomas Sturgeon bought the company, now known as Crooker Construction, in 2014, according to the company’s website at www.crooker.com.

Sturgeon did not immediately return a message left June 18.

Health officer, yes; tree warden, no

Selectmen appointed Joan Belcher the town’s health officer. Then Baston asked about having a tree warden.

“We have a lot of trees,” he said.

Baston read from a law allowing towns to have a tree warden if they don’t have a conservation commission. However, Abbott and Town Clerk Amy Warner recalled that Alna has a conservation commission. One had to be in place a couple of years ago for the town to get a state grant for a tree-planting project at the fire station.

“Never mind,” Baston said.

In the same discussion, Warner told selectmen that the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office has been covering the town’s animal control calls. She was still awaiting the county’s contract for selectmen to sign, for the town to receive those services, she said.