(and ignoring their own evidence!)
The township board is now supporting the neighbor to attempt to land-lock us, using the Marketable Title Act (MTA) a.k.a. "40-year law" immediately to get rid of Hornet Street access (and to try and get rid of the Crismans!) They've mistakenly interpreted the MTA to mean that after 40 years of no maintenance, the road simply "disappears". They are also seemingly ignoring court records and evidence showing, by their own arguments, 40 years wouldn't be until 2024. The township board has a misunderstanding of the MTA, of which the 40 year requirement is only one aspect (other aspects include generally for the road to be: "not used", "no knowledge of existence", "non-possession", etc - Hornet Street clearly not any of these).
But regardless of the other aspects required for the MTA, here is the evidence ignored by board members regarding the 40 years:
It’s just not adding up. Leading up to now, the township has claimed 1984 as the last year Hornet Street was maintained for the full 1/2 mile. 1984 + 40 years = 2024. I know it's been a crazy couple of years, but the calendar in our home reads 2021.
Just during the last year, the board has written 1984 multiple times in their court legal briefs as the last year of maintenance of Hornet St. The board and their lawyers, reassured the court that a request for maintenance would have been required by 2009 (2009 - 25 years = 1984) according to the 25-year rule. 1984 plus 40 years equals 2024.
In the township June 2021 meeting (only 2 months ago!), the towns meeting minutes state, and I quote from their words: "The Crisman's will need a legal access to their property by 2024 based on the 40 year rule.”
The picture below shows the documentation from the township gas tax certification records from at least 1983 (cert for 1984 being the last year) that the Kanabec County Engineer provided to us AND the Township Board at the same time in 2019. They must have misplaced it? (at best) or are ignoring it? This was what their previous argument was based on, 1984 + 40 years equals 2024. The highlighted yellow road in section 22 in the picture is Hornet Street.
The Township has also said now (as of yesterday) that the north quarter mile of Hornet Street (where a family lives) is “not in the public interest.” This suggests that the first quarter mile where nobody lives IS in the public interest. Along with the other 3 and 3/8 miles of township road where nobody lives. The property owners on the first quarter mile will continue to receive year-round maintenance on the township road where they do not live.
Hornet Street has existed as it is for over 100 years. With a family including 3 school bus riders living at the end of the road, does now really seem like the right time for it to go away?
We have followed the township direction and spent tens of thousands of dollars on gravel to improve the existing Hornet St road 2 years ago, including adding a turn-around at our expense, only to have the same people attempt to take it away now and tell us we have to build another brand new 600 ft. road/driveway to the north if we ever want to get in and out of our property ever again.
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