Two landowners are at odds over whether a portion of a county road in the Wolf Creek area should be closed.
Andy Redus is asking the county commission to close 1,085 feet of the end section of Taylor Lane where he has a part time residence.
Taylor Lane is located near the intersection of Wolf Creek Road and the Buffalo Valley Road-Medley Amonette Road. Redus, who lives out of the county, said he wants to install a gate to restrict access to his private property for public safety concerns. “My residence is not a full time residence. I have no way of telling what’s going on there all the time,” Redus told the county commission during a committee meeting Tuesday night. Redus wants to keep out sightseers, trespassers, and litterers. He has already obtained permission from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, an adjoining landowner, to erect the gate provided the Corps has access.
Janice Martin, who also has property on Taylor Lane, is opposed to the closure because an old cemetery is located on the road inside the area where Redus wants to put the gate. Although the cemetery has been there for over a century and is unkept with overgrowth Martin said the road should remain open for anyone who wants to visit there. “This road is not only to my cemetery back there that’s family, there are other people in this county I have talked to who own businesses that have people buried in that cemetery. This is not just the two graves that you can see (stones showing) because the markers (of the other graves) are not there now. It’s a very old cemetery,” said Martin in addressing the county commission.
The DeKalb County Regional Planning Commission held a public hearing in September where Martin voiced opposition but voted to recommend to the county commission that Redus’ request be approved subject to the right of access of visitors to the cemetery located at the end of Taylor Lane and that a hammerhead turnaround which meets with the approval of the Road Supervisor be developed at the expense of Redus.
Martin said the turnaround is not large enough especially for emergency vehicles. “I am totally opposed to closing the road. Andy knew when he bought the property what he was buying. We own both sides of the road all the way back passed that area. I’m within 50 feet of the turnaround so I will have to use that turnaround on a daily basis. I took one of our hay wagons behind my vehicle back there and I could barely get turned around. It is very hard to do. I may also build another house within 50 feet of this property so I will have to have access to fire trucks, ambulances, or other emergency vehicles that would have to come in there. They would have to use this turnaround,” said Martin.
Redus claims the turnaround is large enough and provided pictures showing where he turned around there with a pickup truck pulling a sixteen foot trailer.
Redus said he would provide a key to Corps officials for access to Corps property and make access available to others requesting entry to the cemetery by opening the gate himself remotely from his phone.
During Monday night’s regular monthly meeting, the County Commission is expected to vote on a resolution recommended by the planning commission, which if approved, would grant Redus’ request to close 1,085 feet of the end section of Taylor Lane with the aforementioned conditions.
The meeting will be Monday, November 28 at 6:30 p.m. in the downstairs courtroom of the courthouse.
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