This should be fun.?ÿ The neighbors have hated each other for years and I know them.
A city addition in 1883 created a block longer in one direction than in the other so two alleys were platted.?ÿ One going north to south to a "T" with another alley going east to west.?ÿ Lots north of the east to west alley run north to south.?ÿ The remainder of the block has lots running east to west.?ÿ In 1947 the city agrees to vacate the east to west alley leaving the north to south alley to be a dead end.?ÿ People can drive up the alley to get to their back yards but the only way to turn around is to do so in someone's rear driveway.?ÿ Or back out for up to 250 feet.?ÿ Power lines and other utilities use the alley.
Here's the catch.?ÿ The alley is not where the alley was platted to be.?ÿ A survey in 1967 showed the 20-foot wide alley as being about 20 feet too far east.?ÿ I'm certain something close to that is what we will find today.?ÿ The problem is that one of the landowners has seen an aerial view that indicates his property extends almost entirely across the existing alley.?ÿ He has decided to claim his turf and has erected obstacles to travel.?ÿ This completely blocks off the neighbor he hates the most from being able to access the rear side of her property even on a riding lawnmower.?ÿ The City Attorney has attempted to pretend the City has no stake in the fight.
Today we are simply going to locate existing survey monuments in the block and document the location of fences, utilities, etc.
Gawd I hope there's no rhubarb in there..
Didn't see any rhubarb anywhere.?ÿ The absolute best thing we didn't see was the neighbor from Hell.
we didn't see was the neighbor from Hell.
You will. ?????ÿ
Welllll..................there is one woman in that block who is similar to the one in the video we saw, but, I'm not naming any names until her check clears.
Probably met her for the first time over sixty years ago when the nice old couple who had been our next door neighbors moved to town and became her next door neighbors.?ÿ Much later we were classmates through four years of high school.?ÿ So, I know whereof I speak.
I was totally amazed that we did not receive a visit from him.?ÿ Probably helped that it was the coldest, windiest, dampest day of Fall so far.?ÿ About two minutes before we were ready to leave my helper quietly said, "We are being watched."?ÿ Without looking up or around I asked, "From the red house?"?ÿ That was the correct guess.?ÿ I was all prepared to tell him the story about the City planning to replace their crappy old sewer lines in the block with overhead, clear glass lines.
My imagination running, I'm sitting in court, I have stacks of pictures in my bag, and all the paperwork available.
"Your honor, this subdivision was created in 1922. Here is a fresh copy of the original. It's a composite, created in my computer, because the one at the courthouse is in tatters. It is what I believe is accurate. Here is the alley EW, and NS. This is the original design.
Here is an overlay, showing where it got built, and it has never been any where else, physically.
It is a mechanical mistake, but it's too old to change.?ÿ
When Mr alley grabber bought his lot, 25 yrs ago, he assumed that the physical location was correct.
Back 7 yrs ago, when the GIS was created, and made public, the discrepancy was revealed. Now, Mr alley grabber is trying to go back to the original design. He should go pound sand. He's doing it for spite. Let's legally move the alley today. Here is a list of the landowners who agree with this solution, and all these ones have already signed off on this.
Where the alley was built holds. Not the record.
The alley was never built at the record position."
Or, so I'd guess would be a good solution.
N
?ÿ
Y??all paint your houses red?...Jesus... ?????ÿ
@flga-2
?ÿ
Turn it up!
@flga-2
and put a sign outside of town HELL
@flga-2
Yup.?ÿ That one is what I call barn red.?ÿ Has been as far back as I can remember.?ÿ About 57 years ago it was the home of the attorney who handled by grandfather's estate matters.?ÿ It was the same color then as I recall.
?ÿ
Which reminds me of a story from my days as a starving, but married, college student.?ÿ We were in need of a cook stove for our unfurnished old farm house.?ÿ Saw a little ad for one in the newspaper.?ÿ Called the number and got directions to the house.?ÿ The final part was, "It will be easy to get the right house.?ÿ Ours is the only one with a bright red front door."?ÿ He was correct about that.?ÿ He said it was a bit embarrassing for him as he was the pastor of a rather conservative congregation, but, it was a rental house provided at a very low price by one of the members of his church.
Did y??all have ??see rock city? barns everywhere? They made it all the to Fl. When I was a kid! ?????ÿ
That's it in a nutshell, alright.?ÿ In fact if one stands in the center of the alley as it physically exists and looks to the south down the center he will notice that the alleys in the next two blocks line up as well.?ÿ So, there are similar but smaller issues in those blocks as well.?ÿ Somehow when it came time to physically establish the alley (probably not in 1883 when the plat was drawn up) through the three blocks the center line was not put in properly.?ÿ There is a rational theory on why the far north end might have been shifted ten feet to the east but the error is much more than that.?ÿ That rational theory involves a partial vacation of the street immediately east of these three blocks only two years after platting.?ÿ Half of the street was 50 feet.?ÿ They decided to taper it from 50 on the south to only 40 on the north which was a quarter mile distant.?ÿ So the northernmost lot owners in the east half of the north block effectively gained an additional 10 feet of land.?ÿ Measuring westward from this new east line could skew the alley's location if they measured per the plat distance and ignoring the benefit awarded to landowners in the west half of the block by this mismeasurement.
Can't think of any near here in the misty fog of my childhood memories.?ÿ Seems like there were some in Missouri, though.?ÿ May be confusing those with all the "Mail Pouch Tobacco" barns in Missouri.?ÿ We did have quite a few strings of Burma Shave signs, though.
We did have quite a few strings of Burma Shave signs, though.
When I was a kid, Burma Shave signs were the highlight of any highway trip.?ÿ I have a book listing the rhymes, titled Verse by the Side of the Road, 1965 edition.?ÿ Ebay and Amazon have various editions.
The saga is continuing.?ÿ The client is trying to find a lawyer with some real estate knowledge who is willing to work cheap.?ÿ The attorney she would normally use is unavailable as his law firm is the official "City Counselor" and he happens to be distantly related to The Neighbor from Hell.?ÿ The second attorney she called suddenly decided she did not do that kind of legal work anymore.?ÿ I'm guessing the third one will decline as he really doesn't like irritating Governmental bodies.?ÿ The fourth would do a heck of a job but may decline in favor of his son, who will need a lot of advice from dad.?ÿ Most people who get ordained "Judge" stop handling other work.
Jerks, like The Neighbor from Hell, are everywhere.?ÿ Many surveyors have made many dollars because of these boils on the buttocks of humanity.
boils on the buttocks of humanity
You should make Christmas cards.... You'd get richer that way, than surveying!
The most dilapidated house in my 'hood sold about a year ago.?ÿ It had been a rental for college kids since the '70s.?ÿ The guy that bought it has spent an entire year remodeling the place himself.?ÿ And he's done a pretty good job.
As time has passed I have visited him and kept up with his progress.?ÿ When he found out I was a surveyor he became interested in the locations of his corners.?ÿ Wanting to avoid getting involved too deep I just grabbed my pin finder and found one front corner.?ÿ The other front corner was long gone.?ÿ We took a tape and ran up and down a few lots digging up adjacent corners.?ÿ I satisfied myself that the platted lot width of 50' was probably pretty close.?ÿ He drove a stake in the ground at the approximate corner.
Fast forward six months.?ÿ Since he had wrecked out the entire lath and plaster interior walls of the house he had scads of lath he salvaged.?ÿ He had them bundled and stacked up along the side of the house.?ÿ The owner (not the occupant) of the house next door approached him about the stack, thinking it was "on his property".?ÿ He also identified himself as an attorney.?ÿ My remodeling neighbor showed him the stake and told him I had showed him where the line was located.
The attorney came knocking on my door raising hell and wanted "proof" of the line's location.?ÿ I told him the Book and Page number at the courthouse and suggested he should go 'satisfy' himself... 😉
I guess here in a day or two I'm going to be performing a survey for my buddy.?ÿ Something I was trying to avoid when this all started.?ÿ It's a good example of the old saying "no good deed goes unpunished".
@paden-cash actually you already did a survey for your buddy. You are a surveyor, you placed a stake in the ground marking a lot corner, therefore you performed a survey. You are now in the position of having to retroactively prove that you placed the stake correctly. ????
