St. Albans board says border dispute a private issue

ST. ALBANS – For the second time in less than a year, selectmen have taken no action on a property line dispute brought to them by Gary Jordan Sr.

Jordan maintains there is an illegal crossing of a town right of way and illegal removal of a boundary line on Town Landing Road, where he lives.

Selectmen, however, stand firm that the issue is a problem between landowners, not a town matter.

As a neighboring landowner, Jordan said earlier this week that the town was negligent in permitting the owners of a new business to break through a stone wall to gain access to the Town Landing Road.

He said that because the stone wall marking the right of way was removed, it affects all the abutting properties. He said he has spent two years studying the law regarding easements and right of way.

“The selectmen have denied all responsibility,” Jordan said this week. “It is clearly their responsibility. The stone wall, which has been removed, is the boundary to the town’s right of way.”

He said he will now approach the Somerset County commissioners and have them rule on “lost and doubtful boundaries” and re-establish the right-of-way boundary.

On Tuesday, however, St. Albans Town Manager Larry Post addressed Jordan’s two major concerns.

“The breach in the stone wall concerns the two landowners, not the town,” he said.

“Clearly, the boundaries are not lost,” he added. “The road’s location is consistent with statute and has been clear since 1963. The boundary is still there.”

Post said it has been frustrating dealing with Jordan’s claims since “his problems keep changing month by month, week by week. There is no section of the property he is discussing that affects Mr. Jordan. He has no standing on this issue.”

But Jordan maintains that the town allowed the new business, a self-storage unit, to be constructed, harming his view at Big Indian lake and violating state law regarding removing landmarks detailed in a deed as boundary lines.

He said the road is only a right of way granting public access to Big Indian Lake and the town-owned beach and boat landing, and that developers should never have been allowed to breach the boundary stone wall for access to the right of way.

Jordan said he has deeds and information dating to the 1960s that prove the town had no right to allow the access.

Town officials, however, maintain the town does not grant or deny access to town roads.

“A right of way gives a person permission to cross another person’s land to get from one point to another,” Jordan said this week. Based on deeds he found at the Somerset County Registry of Deeds, Jordan believes, the town, and previous abutting landowners, exceeded their respective authority in connection with the right of way and its physical boundary.

Jordan said that neither the developer, Peter Duncombe, nor the town had the legal authority to cross the stone wall cited as the westerly boundary of the right of way. When portions of the stonewall were removed to accommodate the construction, Jordan said, a state law was broken because of the wall’s status as a boundary line.

He said he has already served the town of St. Albans and Duncombe with an intent to sue notice.

“If I don’t get any satisfaction from the commissioners, then we’ll go for the lawsuit,” said Jordan.