GREENFIELD — The long-running saga of seeking to determine the status of Steam Mill Road in Deerfield has reached the courtroom, as the 2021 lawsuit began its bench trial at the Franklin County Justice Center on Wednesday, with opening statements and the first round of witness interviews concluding.

Steam Mill Road residents Jason, Jamie and Randi Billings filed a lawsuit against Deerfield in Land Court on Nov. 30, 2021, after the Selectboard in September of that year opted to discontinue maintenance on the road past 34 Steam Mill Road. The town had provided plowing and minor maintenance annually up to 60 Steam Mill Road for decades, but town counsel determined that section of the road was a private way, therefore public funds should not be used to maintain it.

Wednesday served as part one of the trial, with a second session planned for Thursday in Boston. Judge Robert Foster is overseeing the case.

The key issue in the case is determining what portions of the road have been accepted as a public way. The plaintiffs and National Grid, which is an intervenor in the case, claim the full length of the road is a public way because the Proprietors of the East Mountain Division transferred several roads, including the full length of Steam Mill Road, to the town in 1748. Deerfield, however, states the layout from the Proprietors was never accepted at Town Meeting and it is instead using one approved at Town Meeting in 1952.

Prior to opening statements, Foster denied the plaintiffs’ and the defendant’s motions to strike pre-filed testimony from each side’s experts, which stemmed from disagreements on the bounds of their testimonies. The judge said it would be difficult to make a ruling in this case without some outside expertise.

“I can wing it,” he joked, “but I don’t think you want me to do that.”

In opening statements, National Grid counsel Nina Pickering-Cook noted the trove of documents dating back to the 18th century may make the case look complex, but it is quite simple: the town has conducted “decades of maintenance” and Steam Mill Road is included in the Chapter 90 funding formula for the town, so the town has been treating it as a public way.

“It’s the classic argument of they can’t have it both ways,” Pickering-Cook said, adding that the town has “represented” the road as a public way through its “decades of conduct.”

In Deerfield’s opening statement, attorney Brian Winner said there is no record of the acceptance of the road and even though several hundred years have passed, there should be some sort of document explicitly saying the road was accepted. Additionally, he said a ruling finding the road is a public way would be a very significant financial hit to the town.

The paved section of the road ends just before 34 Steam Mill Road, which turns into a dirt road down through 60 Steam Mill Road. The dirt road then turns into a sort of trail a little south of house 60, which would need to be brought up to public way standards if a ruling determines the entire length of Steam Mill Road is public.

“Even in the 1740s, there was record-keeping. … You would expect a record of that,” Winner said of the acceptance of the full road. “Were that to become public, it would be a great consequence. That’s a very significant outcome for the town.”

During witness questioning, the plaintiffs called Merritt and Jason Billings to testify about their experiences with town maintenance of Steam Mill Road. Merritt, a 96-year-old lifelong resident of Deerfield whose father owned land on Steam Mill Road, said it was “impossible to answer” how many times he had seen the town working on the road over the decades, but characterized it as “regular maintenance.” Jason, who has lived near and then on Steam Mill Road his whole life, said he, too, had seen the town doing annual maintenance up to 60 Steam Mill Road for years.

Both the plaintiffs and Deerfield called Public Works Superintendent Kevin Scarborough to testify, as he was asked his history of work in town and if he had ever done work on Steam Mill Road. Scarborough said 60 Steam Mill Road was his stopping point on his plow route when he started as an equipment operator in 2010 and work continued there once he became superintendent because public safety workers needed to be able to reach the residences past 34 Steam Mill Road.

“You’ve got to consider police, fire and EMS,” Scarborough said.

Following Winner’s questioning of Scarborough, Pickering-Cook asked Scarborough about Steam Mill Road being included in the Chapter 90 funding formula, to which he said no Chapter 90 money has been used on the road — and funding stemming from the road’s inclusion equates to about $600 of Deerfield’s roughly $400,000 allocation.

Pickering-Cook also noted that Steam Mill Road is listed on the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s road inventory. The inventory was listed as a “contested exhibit” in the pretrial memorandum, but Foster allowed it to be admitted into the trial.

The trial will reconvene on Thursday at 9:30 a.m. in Boston.

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com.