Lake roads

To the editor:

For the past four months, Marion County Improvement District 2 has been trying to help its constituents by holding county commissioners responsible for maintaining county lake roads.

We have presented numerous state statutes, court rulings, attorney general opinions, past county commissioner minutes, and plats that have been approved and recorded in the register of deeds’ office.

We have given the county evidence that it dedicated the roads by approving and recording plats, by having the public use these roads for years, and by the county expending money and labor in the past for their upkeep.

By doing this, a road is deemed a public road “by prescription.” A public road also can be established through “implied dedication” by a similar set of actions.

The county is claiming that because the roads don’t meet a 60-foot width requirement, the county doesn’t have to maintain them.

However, court rulings have established that roads can be grandfathered in, and it is a county’s duty to maintain them as originally opened. When a plat is approved and recorded, an attorney general’s opinion states, the county has accepted the roads even if they were not established correctly.

As elected officials, commissioners should be more willing to work with their constituents. If we voters are not happy with what our officials are doing or not doing, we have the right to vote for another option when the time comes.

Greg Wyatt
Marion County Lake

Editor’s note: Detailed legal citations were provided to commissioners for each of the contentions in this letter.