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August 29, 2009

Residents ask commission for help solving problems

By Patrick McCreless

Shirley Rhoads and Michael Grizzard may not have had the same problem, but they both requested help from the same people — the Cullman County Commission.

At the commission’s regular meeting Friday, Rhoads and Grizzard asked the commissioners to solve their problems, the first of which was flooding on private property while the second was a legal discrepancy involving a county road in the Green Tree subdivision.

Rhoads, who lives in Trimble on County Road 222, said she and her husband gave some of their land to the county years ago so a turn lane could be built. She said over the years, a ditch by that turn lane has filled up and now, every time it rains, the water has nowhere to go but in her yard.

“My yard is flooding. It goes over my septic tank,” Rhoads said. “It smells awful. It smells like sewage.”

She said she has asked the West Side Road Department, which is located across from her residence, several times to clean out the ditch, but so far nothing has been done.

“I feel this is a give-and-take situation,” Rhoads said. “My husband and I gave you our property, and now I feel I am being taken advantage of.”

Commissioner Wayne Willingham, who represents the west side of the county, said he had not been informed about her problem from the road department.

“I will address your problem,” Willingham said.

Grizzard, who owns five lots in the Green Tree subdivision, said he wants to sell them but cannot because of a house built in the middle of a county road that actually does not exist.

“He’s correct. He’s got a mess,” said County Commission Attorney Dan Willingham. “It’s a county road, but there was never a road built there and the building is pretty much totally in the road. Even if you vacate the road, it will not fix the problem ... the property lines would change and the property line would go through the building.”

Grizzard said he has not been able to get a lawyer to take his case because of the litigation costs.

“The woman and the county would have to be sued,” he said.

The county commission voted to vacate the road to get out of the situation and make it easier for Grizzard to resolve the matter.

In other business, the commission passed a resolution to accept a $25,000 grant from the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA). The money will be used for upgrades to the Grandview Community Center. The grant, which is set aside just for community centers, was part of legislation that Sen. Zeb Little sponsored earlier this year.

“We need to let all the community centers in the county know that this money is available and to apply for this grant,” Graves said.



‰ Patrick McCreless can be reached by e-mail at patrickm@cullmantimes.com or by telephone at 734-2131 ext. 270.

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