April 4, 2022 Camden County Commission meeting at 10:00 a.m.

I attended the April 4, 2022 Camden County Commission meeting at 10:00 a.m.

Commissioners Hasty and Gohagan were present.

There were three or four people in the audience who weren’t county employees.

This was the Commission meeting for road vacation petitions. I believe these are scheduled on the first Monday of every quarter.

The name sounds strange, but it’s a petition requesting the county to stop maintaining a certain road. The petitioner has to get the signatures of every person who owns property that is adjacent to the road. These petitions are usually opposed by owners who would lose access to their properties if a certain road is vacated and gated by the petitioner.

The first petition was for Indian Park Lane Road. Nobody was present for this petition and it was approved.

The second petition sounded like it was for “Brown Bend.” Commissioner Hasty said there were no signatures from adjacent property owners. The petition was rejected because it was incomplete.

The final petition was for Murray Street north of Park Street in Climax Springs. A married older couple were the petitioners and they were present. They explained their situation to the Commission. I didn’t have the map, so I’ll keep it simple.

Commissioner Hasty reviewed the petition and did not feel that the legal description of the road was adequate. The commissioners explained they would need to get a signature from the other property owner if they wanted their half of Murray Street vacated. According to the petitioners, the other half of the road had been vacated by petition in 2004, but nobody had ever asked for their signature for that petition. It appeared that the half of the road vacated in 2004 was vacated improperly, but it was simply too late to address that now unless they wanted to take it to court.

The petition asked for the vacation of three different road sections. The Commission voted to vacate the two roads that only bordered the petitioners’ property and table the Murray Street portion until a new petition could be submitted with the signature of their neighbor.

And that was that.

The petitioner couple were fun to talk with after the meeting. They have had a few adventures with their neighbors in that area of Climax Springs. They were a bit wary of approaching the neighbor for the petition signature based on some past experiences. I suggested they could see if they could get a process server to get the signature for them. I hope it works out for them.