By Charles Romans
Carter County Times
The Carter County fiscal court met in regular session on Monday evening, with public comment dominating the meeting. Numerous members of the community brought concerns before the court about everything from right-of-way disputes to food insecurity.
Carter County Kiwanis Club President Marc Bentley spoke to the court about fundraising to support those in need in the community, and invited them to take part in the Harvest Pack food packing event to be held at the Veterans Bingo Hall in November.
Pam Wilburn addressed the court about The Grayson Freewill Baptist Church outreach ministry, where once a month they provide food and other essentials to approximately 300 families in the community. Wilburn said that the group Christian Appalachian Project currently supplies them with a semi load of food and other necessities every month, but if they had more storage space that amount could be tripled. Wilburn discussed the possibility of using the old county garage, but that solution was challenging for a number of reasons.
Amanda Gee, a community health worker from Primary Plus, is partnering with Wilburn and described for the court the impact that programs such as Wilburn’s have on the community.
“As a community health worker, I also get referrals to bridge needs,” Gee said. “Last month alone I had 67 patients in Carter County alone who needed food. The burden is great in our area. As inflation rises so does hardships on families.”
While the use of the maintenance garage could not be considered as a potential solution to the group’s need, county magistrates and the judge executive discussed alternatives such as the possibility of temporarily renting storage units to meet the need. Derrick McKinney of District 2 said that he would check into a potential storage rental, and that he personally would donate the cost of 12 month’s rental.
David Lewis and his sister Paulette Parker appeared on behalf of their 87-year-old mother and addressed the court regarding an ongoing dispute of right-of-way. The pair made a request for the court to try to remedy what Lewis described as a mistake made by a previous fiscal court. The problem, he said, began in 2008, when a neighbor attempted to prevent them from traveling an established right-of-way to access their mother’s property.
Lewis said that according to his research the right-of-way had never changed, but had been recorded improperly when many roads in the area were renamed to facilitate effective 911 service. He and his sister were requesting that the court fix this oversight.
The problem and the dispute with Lewis’ family and their neighbor has resulted in numerous instances of litigation and been ongoing for 17 years. The judge executive told Lewis that he would look into the matter and see what could be done moving forward.
No one appeared before the court to contest the removal of Buck Road from county maintenance, and the matter is slated for a public hearing on October 30, 2024. However, Buck Road resident Cynthia Anderson asked the court what she should do, because her neighbors have blocked the road near its end, and she is not able to get into her driveway. Anderson was wondering if, in the interim while awaiting the public hearing, the county would be able to remove the blockage and allow her access to her property.
Anderson said that she was unable to get into and out of her property without driving through what she termed a ‘mud pit’ and damaging her property further. According to her survey, Anderson said that she owns to the edge of one side of the road and her neighbors own to the other side, but the road itself was an access left by the individual who owned much of the area, and was left out of deeds so that he would have access to different plots of land. Her neighbors, she said, were taking unfair advantage of this and regularly causing damage to her property and making her life miserable due to the contention.
“The violence is worse,” Anderson told the court. “He was walking that road with an AK 47,” she said of her neighbor. “He was threatening me, and I couldn’t come out of the house. I used to be able to walk outside and take my dogs for a walk, and just have a nice life.”
Anderson said that her yard used to be nice, and she had planted saplings, but her neighbor destroyed those and all of that portion of her yard.
“And now he is walking up and down the road with a very large firearm, but he tells the police he doesn’t have anything like that. But this guy is dangerous,” she said. “He attacked my daughter, and he constantly presents himself nude anytime I come outside. He’s getting more verbally abusive and he’s threatening to shoot me, he’s threatening to shoot my dogs, and I am terrified because I don’t know what this person is capable of.”
The court set an open hearing for October 30, to remove Buck Road from county maintenance.
In other business the court, at the request of Linda Day from Safe Harbor, voted on a proclamation to set aside October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and County Judge Executive Brandon Burton read the proclamation to the court and those assembled. The court also voted to surplus a Timberwolf box trailer and accept bids until the next regularly scheduled meeting.
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
