NEWTON -- Voters finally resolved the Peanut Trail controversy yesterday after a decadelong fight over the ownership and recreational use of the former railroad right-of-way.

By a 707 to 611 vote, selectmen were authorized to settle a lawsuit by selling a $65,000 section of the trail to the Raymond Nicol of the Nicol Farm Partnership.

The settlement agreement requires the town to pay Nicol $340,000 for past and future damages to farm crops from off-road vehicles that veered off the trail and across his land. The town would be protected against future lawsuits in the matter.

"It's been seven years of trying to negotiate and compromise, and we finally got over the hurdle," Nicol said last night. "This is going to let us farm, so we don't have a carnival going through all the time." The Nicol Farm, originally purchased in 1946, grows alfalfa, a hay fodder pasture, and cover crop. Nicol also boards a few horses.

The Peanut Trail takes its name from the old spur railroad line. Years ago it used to transport horse-drawn and buggy carriages, which looked like giant peanuts when they were covered by canvas and placed side by side on the flat-bed rail cars.

Newton town officials have already spent an estimated $100,000 in legal fees in connection with the Peanut Trail case.

After a Rockingham County Superior Court decision last year, the town's insurer appealed the large judgment to the state Supreme Court. The trial court decided $400,000 judgment in favor of Nicol and his sister, Michele Nicol Fitzgerald.

There were no briefings scheduled in Supreme Court, but the high court would have proceeded with the case if Newton voters had rejected the settlement yesterday.

Mary Marshall, a selectman who won a seat on the Budget Committee, said she was glad the Peanut Trail controversy was put to rest. "I really think people are fed up with it," she said last night as results were tallied.

Janice Amero, a taxpayer and recreation commissioner in town, said she was unhappy with the way the controversy was handled because, while the trail was a good recreational asset, Nicol deserved to be protected as a landowner. She voted for the settlement.