County discusses dedication of public road

BROOKHAVEN — Lincoln County Engineer Ryan Holmes brought an issue of a public road needing to be dedicated to correct title issues to the board of supervisors Thursday. His report came during a regularly scheduled docket meeting.

Sagewood, a subdivision off of MS-550, was built by Paul Jackson Construction back in the 1960s. Holmes said a platt put together by Paul Jackson in 1963 showed the road was platted under a different name and later changed to Sagewood Lane. Lincoln County never accepted the road or had it dedicated.

The problem is now a title insurance company will not sign off on a title because the road was not dedicated. A buyer had to back out of a purchase and a seller is trying to get things straightened out.

“The entire road was never dedicated. It has been maintained and it is in the road register. It needs to be certified as a dedicated road,” Holmes said. “In 1999, All Counties had to develop a road register. It is a public road by descriptive use but it was not dedicated.”

A few supervisors and Lincoln County Board Attorney Greg Malta asked if the road was still in fact public and if the county still had to maintain it. Holmes explained it was indeed a public road and they still had to maintain it.

The road needs to be dedicated for the title insurance issue to be resolved. Holmes said this would either require a court ruling started by a homeowner filing a suit or by all of the residents of the subdivision signing off on dedicating the road.

“They never gave you the land, it was not policy then,” Holmes said. “It has been a county road for a long time. Someone wants to get hung up on it now. The court could change that.”

District 4 Supervisor Eli Ferguson was beside himself as Holmes explained the situation. Ferguson is a realtor with Southern Oak Properties.

“It makes me mad. It is no different than every other landowner living on that owner. It has to be an issue for everyone else. But no one else cared,” Ferguson said.

Holmes said again the best solution to fix the issue is to have “the man (judge) upstairs handle it.”

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