By GINA KINSLOW
EDMONTON — Metcalfe County magistrates agreed earlier this week to declare a road in the Summer Shade community a public road so it may be maintained by the county road department.
Magistrates voted to ask County Attorney Barry Gilley to draft a resolution stating Trinity Lane is a county road.
The magistrates’ decision falls on the heels of a ruling issued by Metcalfe Circuit Court Judge Phil Patton in the case of Lora Lee Ferguson versus the County of Metcalfe. In his ruling, Patton stated Trinity Lane is a public road and not a county road. If the county wishes to adopt Trinity Lane as a county road it may do so by meeting the requirements of Kentucky Revised Statute 178.115.
“There is a statute that gives them notice, and you have to post a notice on the courthouse door and on the property and you have to adopt it by resolution and ordinance,” said Gilley.
In the resolution, magistrates must state the necessity for the road or structure and explain why it should be opened to the public. A certified copy of the resolution shall be posted at the courthouse door of the county within five days after its adoption and a certified copy of the resolution shall be posted by the county road engineer of the county along or at the proposed road or structure within five days after its adoption, according to the state law.
The county cannot maintain the road unless it is adopted into the county road system.
Ferguson sought an adjudication that Trinity Lane, which is on her property, was neither a public nor a county road. Magistrates filed a counterclaim seeking a determination that the road was a county road. A bench trial was held on Nov. 25, 2008 during which the Court heard evidence and reviewed the pleadings and proof, in addition to viewing the road and the nearly 100-year-old cemetery on it.
At one time the road was fenced on both sides under Ferguson’s ownership and her parents’ from 1966 until the fence was removed along one side in 1998.
The county has performed, on occasion, maintenance on Trinity Lane for more than 40 years including grading and installing a tile bridge.
Magistrates adopted a county road map in 1998 that included Trinity Lane, but there was no direct evidence produced that the Metalfe County Fiscal Court had ever formally adopted a resolution to open or establish Trinity Lane as a county road, Patton said in his ruling.
Ferguson can file an appeal. If she decides to do so it must be done within 35 days from the date the resolution was adopted, according to the state law.
Several members of the Summer Shade community turned out for the fiscal court meeting Tuesday to show their support for twin sisters Emma Barlow and Nova Stone, who were in favor of Trinity Lane becoming a county road so it can be maintained by the county road department. The sisters said the road had gotten in poor shape.
“We just can’t fix the road. We just can’t get in there and fix the road,” said Barlow.
“We want the county to maintain it,” Stone said.
Among those who turned out to show her support for the sisters was Carol McMurtrey.
“I have lived in Summer Shade about not a mile from it. It had always been a county road. Anybody could go to the cemetery for the (black) people,” she said.
McMurtrey confirmed that the cemetery was quite old.
“It’s been there a lot longer than I’ve been in Summer Shade. I’ve been there for 55 years,” she said.
It was reported that Ferguson was not present at the fiscal court meeting. A listed phone number of Ferguson was not available.
Gilley is scheduled to present the resolution to magistrates for adoption at their next fiscal court meeting.
