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County faces lawsuit
By David Lusk
The Weekly Post
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Published May 28, 2009
FORT PAYNE—A lawsuit filed on May 18 to maintain a closed public road became public on Tuesday at the Dekalb County Commission meeting. The commission discussed the suit and opted to let it proceed to court.
The suit pertains to the county’s decision to close a portion of County Road 30, commonly known as Little Sand Valley Road, which runs between Alabama Highway 68 and County Road 223, northwest of Collinsville. In the suit, the Plaintiff, Tommy Simpson, states that the road closure is not in the best interest of the public. The following are excerpts from the actual suit complaint:
“That the above-described road has existed as a North-South thoroughfare in DeKalb County, Alabama since prior to 1890. This road is one of the very few North-South roads in DeKalb County, Alabama. This road is used by the traveling public on a daily basis.” The suit goes on to allege that the road was closed in order to give the land to a land owner contiguous to the road.
However, according to county roads engineer Ben Luther, all the legal steps were followed by the commission in closing the road.
“As far as we’re concerned, we’ve looked at it and we’ve followed what the law requires us to do as far as vacating roads,” said Luther.
The law requires the county to advertise such potential road closures in the legal section of area newspapers and hold a hearing to allow the public to speak for or against such road closures during one of their regular meetings. Those steps were reportedly taken, and during the meeting at which a public hearing was scheduled, no one appeared to speak for or against the road closure. County commission president Sid Holcomb stated that state troopers have told him in the past that this particular section of road is one of the most dangerous in the county, and that the road should be closed for reasons of safety.
The suit alleges in Section 6 that this is the second time the issue of this road closure has been brought before the courts.
“On March 20, 1992 in case number CV 1991-424 a DeKalb County jury decided that it was ‘not in the public interest that the roadway in question be closed.’ Accordingly, Honorable Judge David A. Rains entered a judgement stating ‘that portion of Little Sand Valley Road between State Highway 68 and County Road 30 lying in Section 32, Township 8 South, Range 7 East in DeKalb County, Alabama, shall remain open and subject to use by the public, it being found to not be in the public interest that such road be closed.”
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