by Matt Hughes
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| Cindy Wabner of Poole addresses the court |
It was a long, and at times heated, Webster County Fiscal Court meeting on Monday. Representatives of the community of Poole were on hand to discuss troublesome properties in their area, and the property owner of a tree in the Slaughters area was on hand to try once again to fight for the survival of what has been called a two hundred year old tree.
Property owner Roger Winstead, along with his attorney, Jimmy Gentry, made their first appearance before the court after a battle over a tree that started in the spring.
The tree was first discussed before the court on June 12, 2013, as the county was discussing roads that needed to be resurfaced.
“It’s a situation where the road needs to be resurfaced, but I can’t see doing it if we can’t get this issue straightened out,” Judge Townsend said in June.
“It would be different if it sat back off the road,” said Magistrate Jerry “Poogie” Brown. “The blacktop runs right up against the tree.”
Visitor Reid Haire, former Daviess County Judge Executive, asked if he could say something.
“I’ve run into this kind of things several times when I was in your place,” Haire told the court. “The question you have to ask is, if someone hit that tree, would the county be responsible? Would they sue the property owner or the county? I don’t know what your county attorney would say, but that question pretty clearly dictates whose responsibility the tree is. If it’s an obstruction, the county has a responsibility to remove it.”
The concern voiced by the court was that not only did the tree growing right up to the asphalt cause a liability if someone were to wreck, several dead limbs high in the tree posed a threat to school buses and other vehicles that passed underneath it’s limbs.
Over the summer crews from the county attempted to trim dangerous limbs on the tree, but there was at least one that could not be reached. In September the court voted that since all of the limbs couldn’t be removed, the tree needed to come down.
“Mr. Winstead and I read in the paper that the tree was going to be cut down,” Gentry said on Monday. “No notice was given to Mr. Winstead or I that his tree was going to be taken down. It had been believed that the tree was just going to be trimmed because the county was concerned about dead limbs.”
Gentry criticized the county for a lack of direct communication about the issue, and said that he did not believe the tree was a liability to anyone.
“Who is responsible for the tree if I run into it?” Magistrate Jerry “Poogie” Brown asked.
“You would be if you run into a stationary object,” Gentry replied.
“The state made me move my mailbox because it was a liability by being in the right of way.”
“The county or the state would have to move everything away from the road everywhere then,” Gentry said.
Gentry then told the court that if they were going to treat one resident a certain way, then they needed to treat every resident the same way.
“The initial frustration was that Mr. Winstead’s property was the only property effected,” Gentry said. “I’m asking that no action be taken until we can determine what really needs to be done. I understand that it’s just a tree, but it’s someone’s property.”
Gentry and Winstead then introduced a photo they said was of a red tailed hawk, one of a family of protected birds that lives in the tree.
“Red tailed hawk, their nesting places and habitat are nationally protected,” Gentry informed the court. “We need to wait for the Federal Government to investigate, and they’re closed right now.”
Finally magistrates Brown and Chad Townsend voted to rescind the order to demolish the tree, have the road surveyed to determine the actual right-of-way and then await a federal government ruling on whether there are red-tailed hawks living in the tree or not. Magistrate Tony Felker, who had voiced concerns over the original vote to cut the tree down, voted against the decision, which passed 2-1.
In other business, a group of concerned Poole residents were on hand to request the county’s assistance with nuisance properties in their community.
“We’re just wanting to clean it up,” said Cindy Wabner. “We are a very small community to have so many abandoned buildings.”
“They’re falling down,” added Nelson Crowley. “They’re a fire hazard. If there was ever a fire to start in one of them, it could be bad.”
Crowley also said that everything from rats to raccoons were living in many of the abandoned structures.
“This kind of falls through the cracks,” said County Attorney Clint Prow. “If Poole was an incorporated city it would be different. Providence and Clay are good examples. They can order the property owner to fix things or place a lien against the property.”
But with Poole not being an incorporated city, Prow said their options were very limited. The only thing on the books was a county ordinance that required owners to clean up their property, but it only referred to things like mowing and cleaning up garbage. It did not included demolition of abandoned structures.
“In some cases we have worked with people to try and get them to take measures,” Prow said. “It’s been a year or two, but we have had people cited to court in the past. The district judge just ordered them to clean their property up.”
Prow told the court that he would investigate the issue further, stating that he did not know if there was any grounds for a county to take measures similar to those used by Clay and Providence that could result in the county taking over the property.
•Magistrates voted to award the demolition and installation bid for the Blackford Bridge to L.T. Black Construction from Bardwell, KY. Black’s bid of $48,750 was higher than the $47,500 bid by Brown Construction, but Brown’s bid included a 15 percent penalty for any cost above the bid amount.
•The court also awarded bids for a new truck for the county’s solid waste department. Madisonville Ford-Nissan will provide the truck and chassis for $34,803 with the bed being installed by Myer Truck of Evansville.
•HNR Agripower submitted the winning bid for the county’s new mower. The county will pay $24,788 for that mower.
•The court voted to prioritize 12 projects on the county’s LGEDF list. That new order is:
1)Blackford Bridge ~ $400,000
2)New Tractor/Mower ~ $175,000
3)Road Maintenance ~ $275,000
4)Road improvement ~ $250,000
5)County Equipment ~ $250,000
6)Clay Sewer Line ~ $225,000
7)Multi-County Energy Initiative
~ $10,000
8)Providence Sewer & Water
~ $150,000
9)County Projects ~ $`1,060,000
10) Providence KIA Loan
~ $200,000
11)Clay Veterans Memorial Park
~ $30,000
12)Sebree Water line rehab
~ $170,000
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