Several families in Duck Hill are frustrated about a road that partly in the city.
The road is not being maintained because it’s not the town’s responsibility nor the town’s road, according to Duck Hill’s board attorney Adam Kirk, .
Tiffany Jones and Barbara and Charles Williams all came before the Duck Hill Board of Aldermen. The Williams said they want to build a home on the road where Jones lives near the intersection of Main Street and Highway 404 West, however; part of the road is owned by a landowner that won’t help them to fix the road.
Jones said the road is tearing up their vehicles, and she doesn’t understand why she has to pay city and county taxes when no one will fix the road.
“We need some type of help,” Jones said. She said the landowner has blocked all progress, and he won’t even allow equipment on the road. She said they each have an easement from him that gives them access to their property. But, nothing had been done. Jones said it’s hard to travel the road.
Kirk explained that because it’s not a city road, there’s nothing the board can do to help. He told them they could talk to the supervisor and see if he would help.
“I’m not sure if it would be Edwin Taylor or Keith McGee, but you could see if they could get the county to take over the road,” he said. “But, in my experience, if the road isn’t already built up they aren’t going to take it over.”
“Well, what good is it going to do?” Barbara Williams asked. Kirk said the county could do imminent domain and take over the road because there are other people who live on the road, and it is for the safety of the residents.
City Engineer Joe Sutherland said he was torn between the two, because he owned land where the road is and because he’s the city engineer.
“Well, you sold us our land Joe, so you tell us what to do,” Charles Williams said. Sutherland said, as the city engineer, he’d say there’s really nothing the town could do, and the road isn’t built up. But, as a land owner, he said he would go in with the Joneses and the Williams to speak to the supervisor.
“The town can’t use public money for private property,” Kirk said. “I mean it’s harsh to say, but because it’s privately owned there’s nothing we can do. It’s like if I got land on Prospect Road, and I decided to build a road 10 miles off it. I can’t tell the county, come fix my road, because it’s not their responsibility,” he said.
Kirk also suggested that the Joneses and the Williams go to a lawyer to detail what all the landowner can and can’t do until the guise of the easement.
