By John Estridge
It was another Franklin County Commissioners meeting so the main topic of discussion, as it has been for months, is County Line Road.
Some members of the Wilhelm family have property off Indiana 1 South they say is landlocked, and the county needs to improve and reestablish a road that is called a variety of names but namely County Line Road. It runs west from Ind. 1 for about 1,200 feet.
To the south is St. Leon and to the north is Franklin County.
Property owners, through Brookville attorney John Bear, want the county to at least put the road back as a gravel road, saying it has been a county road since 1857, citing commissioners’ minutes from that time. Without opening the road, several property owners will be left landlocked, Bear said.
The county commissioners have stated they believe the road is a public way and should be put back as a dirt road, spending not more than $5,000 in the process. For the commissioners, this is a sticky wicket as there are many roads in the county, which have been abandoned through time whether the roads are former township roads or were historically present by other means.
However, Bear said this road is unique and does not set a precedent, which could haunt the commissioners as the commissioners have stated the county does not have enough money to adequately maintain its current road system let alone add more roads to the system.
The properties in question are in Dearborn County, more specifically within St. Leon’s large boundaries that reach to the north all the way to the Franklin County Line. Also, the properties are zoned light industrial and will be worth quite a bit more with a good access to Ind. 1. At the present, at least one parcel is for sale.
At the Tuesday, September 8, commissioners meeting, a landowner in the area and a representative of a second landowner in the area expressed their misgivings about opening the road and whether it ever was a county road.
Gloria Hoog was representing her son who owns about 1.15 acres off Ind. 1 where Bear said the road begins. She said it is her son’s driveway, and it is private property. She said there is no mention of the road in his deed.
However, John Wilhelm, who is one of the landowners involved with getting the road reopened, said he owned and sold the land Hoog’s son lives on now, and there is an easement for the road in the deed.
Commission president Tom Linkel called on Rob Seig, a private surveyor the county hired about a month and a half ago to find out if the road in question was in fact in Franklin County, for further information. Seig, who was in the socially distanced audience, explained his process and what exactly he was looking for. He said he was not looking into people’s deeds because all he was supposed to do was find out if the road in question was in the county.
However, he said the Hoogs may be overlooking a paragraph at the bottom of their deed.
“We didn’t research that particular parcel because our goal was to mark the county line to see where the roadbed fell,” Seig said. “However, I would like to mention is one of the things you should pay close attention to your deed is the closing statement of that deed. A lot of times it will state subject to any and all right of ways and so forth speaks of easements and things of that nature.”
While not inspecting that particular deed, Seig said something like that is usually put on a deed to cover for any possible rights of way that may not be of record or stated on that particular record.
He said, on the 1882 Atlas, there is a road coming off what is now Indiana 1 and going over to connect with other roads.
Lawrence Weldishofer said he lives at the other end of the road, which he called a logging road.
“I live on the other end of that the road you are talking about,” Weldishofer said. “It’s never been open, never been a road. I lived in St. Leon all my life. It has never been a gravel road, never been a road that I know of.”
Linkel agreed about the road not ever being a gravel road, saying the county engineer searched the road but never found any evidence of gravel ever being on the road.
“I think it was just an old logging road is what it was,” Weldishofer said.
Earlier in the meeting, the commissioners agreed to extend the period Bear has to file suit against the county if he and his clients decide to do that. At the prior commissioners meeting where the commissioners agreed to pay up to $5,000 to put the road back as a dirt road, the clock began ticking on a 30-day limit for Bear to file the suit. Commissioners unanimously decided that time limit is unfair as the commissioners do not know when work will be done on the road. Therefore, they unanimously extended the time to file suit against the county to 30 days after the work is done on the road.
Hoog asked how much money the Wilhelms are asking for the property in question that is currently for sale and is zoned light industrial. It was stated the amount is $174,900.