Woolwich Selectmen met with their town attorney Monday seeking advice on a bridge linking George Wright Road to a private home. At issue is the future responsibility for maintaining and eventual replacement of the small span built over 50 years ago.

“So far it’s been all talk and very little action,” Chairman David King Sr. said Tuesday morning. “We’re hoping our attorney might have something ready for us to take up at our next board meeting.” The select board meets again 6 p.m., Monday, Feb. 1. Belfast attorney Kristen Collins is advising the town.

The bridge came up at the selectmen’s Jan. 19 meeting. The house and property served by the small span is owned by Matthew Richard and his wife. This past Friday, King, along with selectmen Jason Shaw and Lloyd Coombs, met Road Commissioner Jack Shaw to have a look at it and walk the property. Located just down the road from the Woolwich town office, the bridge spans Nequasset Brook close to where it spills over the dam.

The road commissioner told the Wiscasset Newspaper the bridge remains in fairly good condition despite its age. Because it’s municipally owned, it’s inspected by the Maine Department of Transportation every two years. Its next inspection is scheduled for November. The bridge is constructed of steel I-beams and has a wooden decking and steel rails. “It’s been posted to 12 tons for something like 25 years,” continued Shaw. “Concerns, if there are any, would be with its abutments.” Sometime in the future MDOT may chose to further lower the bridge’s load capacity, he added. “The state is really the entity who decides because they’re the ones who do the inspection of it.”

King said the town footed the bill when the bridge was replaced in 1964 but not without some controversy. “Documentation we’ve found at the town office indicates in May 1958 the townspeople voted to discontinue both the road and bridge. A few months later in October, a group of townspeople petitioned for a special town meeting and then voted to take both the road and the bridge back.”

The bridge’s posting for 12 tons limits what can be done on the property on the opposite side, King said. “It prevents heavily ladened trucks from crossing it.” Along with the Richards, King said the Bath Water District owns property here, although the water district doesn’t rely on the bridge to gain access to the dam. The town also owns a quarter of an acre of shoreland once used as a boat landing and retains a right-of-way.

If the town were to ever to build a new bridge here it would have to be constructed in accordance with MDOT’s specifications. King estimated the cost would be about $300,000 or more. The road commissioner noted if the bridge were privatized it could be built safely for about a quarter of the cost because MDOT’s standards wouldn’t apply.

Selectman Dale Chadbourne hopes the board can work something out that satisfies the town and Matthew Richard. Chadbourne doubts the townspeople would ever go along with building a new bridge that serves only one home. “We offered to turn it over to him and he’s not interested. It’s not a good situation all the way around,” Chadbourne said. Like the other selectmen, Chadbourne’s anxious to see what advice the town attorney will offer.

In the meantime the road commissioner said he’ll continue to keep an eye on the bridge. As long as the 12-ton weight limit is adhered to, it is in no danger of falling, he said. MDOT estimated the bridge would exceed its life expectancy in 2033.