Town officials, property owner possibly to go to court in dispute over back-up entrance to cemetery

LA GRANGE — The makings of a lengthy legal battle is brewing in La Grange between government officials and a local landlord over ownership rights to one of the town’s oldest streets.

La Grange Town Manager John Craft has “opened a dialogue” with Farris Duncan, a Goldsboro attorney who specializes in real estate law, to reclaim an unnamed 15-foot gravel roadway that sits at the northeast corner of Fairview Cemetery.

Marvin Moore, a Morehead City proprietor, assumed full control of the street this month in purchasing the property to open a mobile home park.

Craft’s meeting with Duncan comes after Moore cordoned off the auxiliary entrance to the town-maintained graveyard off Ed Herring Road with a barrier of shrubs sandwiched in-between a set of split rail and chain link fences.

“If the Town of La Grange proves it is not my property as stated on my deed, I will move my fence,” Moore said.

“I am not mad with the town,” Moore added. “I have invested a lot of money in La Grange. It is a lovely place. But I am not giving up 15 feet for the Town of La Grange without any pay.”

Moore’s barricade has triggered numerous town residents who travel the street daily, including one La Grange resident that used the street as a primary access point to his home, to voice concerns over the loss of the road to Craft, his staff and the La Grange Town Council.

The group prompted the town council last week to give Craft the go-ahead to obtain from Duncan a prescriptive easement — a form of state legislation that would give the town and the public a legal right to access the street due to their continued use of it for the past 20 years.

“It’s a publicly dedicated right-of-way,” said Craft, who has provided Duncan a copy of the property’s tax map as well as an aerial photo of the land for legal counsel on the situation. The town’s attorney, George Jenkins, could not represent the municipality in this matter because of a conflict of interest in serving as both La Grange’s and Moore’s lawyer.

Craft said he and Duncan have reason to believe a prescriptive easement has existed for more than 40 years, despite claims by Moore that town administrators have been told for years the property is not theirs.

Besides many describing the road as well-traveled, the proof lies in a 1969 boundary marker for the town’s limits a couple of feet north of the street, Craft said.

Gary Fields, employed separately by Moore and the town to survey the surrounding property, declined to comment on an open matter, but said he discovered an 1863 map drafted by the Confederate States of America that shows the road as one of the oldest in La Grange.

Craft said the preliminary results of Fields’ survey showed the town does own an easement that would provide access into the cemetery 5-feet north of the gravel road. It also found a chain link fence installed by Moore to define his boundaries has encroached upon the town’s land.

“If they want to spend money on a lawyer, that’s fine,” said Moore, who has set up three manufactured homes on his land. “But for just a third of that money they spend, they could go there with their backhoe and open their easement to the cemetery.”

Craft said the town explored that option, but a property owner neighboring the land built a concrete storage building on a portion of the town’s land. Moving the road into the town’s right-of-way would require the demolition of the building on the town’s property as well as relocating a power line on the property, Craft said.

Craft estimates it will take six months to a year to resolve the dispute as Moore “wanted nothing to do with” negotiations presented to him by town officials, which included swapping easements. Moore denied such an offer existed.

 No word has been given on whether the town will pursue a court order stating it has been damaged, but Moore said if they do he will be prepared.

“That’s my property,” he said. “If they want to go to court, that’s fine. I’m ready.”

Wesley Brown can be reached at 252-559-1075 or wbrown@freedomenc.com.

Breakout:

Getting even?

- La Grange Town Manager John Craft alleges Marvin Moore blocked off the auxiliary entrance to Fairview Cemetery as a means of retaliation for Craft refusing, as per the town’s policy, to assign his staff to install rocks on the driveway that provides access to Moore’s manufactured home park

- Moore said that claim is “a long way off” and that he put up the road block to “straighten up his property” for his tenants by preventing people from walking through and trashing the appeal of the complex

- When Moore reportedly heard the town would not improve his driveway, Craft said Moore asked him in a conversation the two had at the town hall during the past month to have the road to the cemetery paved

- When Craft denied that request, Craft said Moore told him the roadway was on his land and that he was going to close it

- Craft said he requested Moore to allow him to have the property surveyed and give the town the opportunity to evaluate the situation. Moore acknowledged the two met, but did not give any specific details of the conversation

- Before the property was examined, Craft said he received a phone call a few days later informing him Moore closed the road, leaving the town with only one entrance/exit from the cemetery