1914 map shows street designs
By Bonnie Edwards
Published in News on December 9, 2004 1:56 PM
SEVEN SPRINGS -- Town officials have discovered a 1914 map that shows street designs for the hill above town. Ninety years later, the board is making plans to develop those streets.
Town Commissioner Danny Carter discovered the map at the Wayne County Courthouse while investigating reports by Randall Casey that the town had streets recorded. Casey had said the streets were designed to go on the hill where he lives. He had complained about having to pay taxes while the town provided no services.
Carter told the other board members Monday night that the streets are listed on the map. Only one of them has been built and that was done by Casey.
The streets are named in Casey's deed, said Carter. He said the road that Casey built and named Casey Drive is listed on the map as the corner of Davis and Bradford streets.
Other owners of land atop the hill are Mike Dawson and the Maxwell family. Casey's home is the only house there.
"The town has never acknowledged the streets are there," Carter said. "We can connect this (Church Street) with the others with a dirt street with a 50-foot right of way."
He said that, as a courtesy, the town could request permission to cross the Maxwell property to extend Church Street and develop the other streets.
"We can put it there and pay him tax value," Carter said. "... It would also increase the value of his property. It doesn't matter if God owns it. We can cross it."
The town can use state road grants to build the street, but the grants can't be used for legal fees, said Commissioner Rodolph Adams.
If it takes litigation, Carter said, he would personally pay the legal fees.
The board voted unanimously to have Carter and Town Clerk Deanna Grady check into the cost of putting in the street, the cost of running a sewer line along the side of the street to Casey's house and legal fees if needed.