What does a town get for plowing a road that isn't in its own town? On Ferncroft Road, that depends on which town's minutes you read.
On September 9, 2026, several Albany residents from Ferncroft Road came to the Albany Select Board. They said the Town of Sandwich had revoked beach privileges they'd had for more than 30 years. In their account, the beach access was one half of a long-standing deal. Albany plows and maintains Ferncroft Road, and in return Ferncroft households get to use Sandwich's beach and transfer station. The transfer station is still open to them. The beach is not.
Sandwich's own records describe a narrower deal, and they date the change more than a year before Albany took it up.
A Road That Crosses Town Lines Twice
You can't understand the deal without the map, and the map is unusual. The Sandwich Historical Society's auto tour of the Whiteface area traces the route. Route 113A, called the Chase Road on that stretch, heads north out of Sandwich, crosses into Tamworth, and comes into the Wonalancet Intervale. Ferncroft Road bears straight ahead where 113A takes a sharp curve. From there, measured from 113A, the tour logs these points:
- Almost immediately: a bridge over Paugus Brook, and you're in the Town of Albany. The road runs up a small intervale with a parking area on the right at the north end.
- 0.6 mile: the line from Albany back into Sandwich, marked by a short granite post with an "A" on one side and an "S" on the other.
- 0.7 mile: Squirrel Bridge Road heads off to the left, with summer houses, cottages and the Blueberry Ledge Trail up Mount Whiteface.
- 0.8 mile: the town road ends at a stone wall by a farm, where the Dicey's Mill Trail starts up Mount Passaconaway.
The town line has split things here for a long time. The tour says the old Ferncroft summer hotel stood right at the crossing, with the line running through the main house. Back when it was a private home in the 1800s, the brother whose bedroom was in Sandwich voted in Sandwich, and the brother whose bedroom was in Albany voted in Albany.
By the tour's mileage, the Albany section is the first six-tenths of a mile. The last two-tenths, from the granite post to the stone wall, are in Sandwich. That short Sandwich stretch at the end of a dead-end road is what the agreement is about.
Two Sets of Minutes, Two Versions of the Trade
The two towns don't fully agree on what Albany gets in return for that plowing. Here is what each one has on the record.
Albany Select Board, Sept. 9, 2026 | Sandwich Selectmen, June 30, 2025 | |
|---|---|---|
What Albany provides | Plowing and maintenance of Ferncroft Road | Plowing of "a portion of Sandwich roadway in the Ferncroft area" |
What Ferncroft residents receive | Beach access and transfer station privileges | Transfer station use |
Who confirmed it | Albany Road Agent C. Coleman said the original deal included both | Administrative Assistant Kelly Cox summarized the history for the board |
Beach status | Lost; transfer station is the only benefit still in use | Swimming facilities "never intended" for Albany or Wonalancet owners |
Sandwich's June 2025 minutes went on to record the board's own position:
The Board noted receipt of correspondence and emphasized the town swimming facilities were never intended to be made available to Albany or Wonalancet property owners.
No written agreement has turned up in either town's public records, so there's no document showing when the deal started or what it covered. The minutes from each town are the only record so far. Albany's road agent and the residents say beach access was part of it. Sandwich says it never was. Both towns agree on the transfer station, and it is still in use.
Sandwich Tightened Its Stickers First
The minutes date the change. Sandwich's June 30, 2025 entry says the board received letters from property owners in Albany and Wonalancet "due to the recent reinstatement of Sandwich's policy for allowing such residents use of the transfer station only." In Sandwich's telling, then, the beach cutoff happened by the start of summer 2025. Albany took up the complaint 14 months later, in September 2026.
The timing fits a broader push in Sandwich to tighten who uses its facilities:
- June 1, 2015: Sandwich passed an ordinance limiting town facilities to Sandwich residents and taxpayers. It covers the Squam Lake Beach and Boat Ramp, the Transfer Station, Bearcamp Pond Beach, the Pothole and Beede Falls. It was updated in July 2021.
- July 29, 2024: A Selectmen's update tied a review of the sticker policy to concerns about facility capacity. The options under discussion were four stickers per property, proof of residency or ownership, and no more than two guest passes.
- January 13, 2025: New 2025–2026 stickers became available to property owners and residents only, at four stickers and two guest passes per property. Old stickers had a grace period through March 2025. The registration form required the updated permit by April 1.
- June 30, 2025: Letters from Albany and Wonalancet owners reached the Sandwich board, along with the "transfer station only" language.
A month after that, the beach was crowded enough to get a board discussion of its own. At the July 28, 2025 meeting, Sandwich officials talked about parking and water access at the Town beach. Selectman Haight said parking fixes could happen quickly, while other improvements would have to wait for the next budget cycle. In the same meeting, a question came up about Airbnb renters using the beach more. Town Administrator Courtney Delaney said that when the beach is at capacity, parking passes can't tell renters, owners, guests and residents apart, and that every property owner is held to the same guest-pass limits.
None of the minutes say which Sandwich beach the Ferncroft households used. Sandwich lists the Town Beach at Squam Lake, Bear Camp Beach and the Pot Hole Swim Area as separate facilities. Whichever one it was, the end of Ferncroft access came during a stretch when Sandwich was cutting back on beach stickers for its own property owners as well.
Where Things Stand Before Oct. 14
Three Ferncroft residents attended the September 9 meeting. They spoke to Chairman K. Robitaille and Selectmen R. Hiland and J. Drouin, with Town Administrator A. Haynes and Road Agent Coleman also present. The residents said they were disappointed and asked the board to find out whether the old agreement could still be honored. The board said it would contact the Sandwich Select Board to request a meeting.
The same minutes say the board talked about holding its October 14 meeting in Wonalancet, close to the road in question. As of this week, Albany's homepage lists that meeting for Wednesday, October 14, 2026, at 4:30 p.m. at Albany Town Hall. The latest Selectmen's minutes posted are from September 9, so any decision on the location after that hasn't been published. Sandwich's posted Selectmen's schedule doesn't show a joint meeting with Albany either.
If you want to follow it, Albany Town Hall is the place to start. The Town Clerk and Tax Collector's office is closed October 6 through 9 for training. It has special hours of 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Monday, October 5, and Saturday, October 10.
Leaf Season at the End of the Road
Ferncroft households don't need the beach in October. They do still deal with the road, and early October brings hikers to its far end for Whiteface and Passaconaway. The Wonalancet Out Door Club posts a parking guide for the Ferncroft hiker lot. It says the lot holds about 40 spaces and that WODC recently doubled its size. The posted rules:
- Spots open up during the day as hikers leave, so a lot that looks full may still have room.
- A few overflow spaces sit just before the lot on the cemetery side, to the left as you drive in. They're legal only when every space in the lot is taken.
- Pull up to the edge of the gravel and keep the center lane clear.
- No parking on Ferncroft Road, past the lot's access road, in any driveway, or anywhere on the hayfield, which is working farmland.
- If every legal space is full, go to another trailhead. The poster suggests Mount Paugus, Sandwich Dome and Mount Israel.
The poster says the parking area and the lower sections of the trails into the National Forest are private land. It also says the people who live in Wonalancet built and have maintained those trails over the past 130 years.
If you own on Ferncroft Road or anywhere else in Albany and want to know how a deal like this affects a property, Pinkham Real Estate follows the Valley's town-line arrangements closely. Contact our team to start your Mount Washington Valley search, or to ask what the town records say about a specific road.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.