BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN

INEZ — The Martin County Fiscal Court addressed an agenda Thursday that included a conflict over a road that a property owner says was illegally adopted into the county road plan in 2020.

Magistrates voted to begin the process of adding new roads as well as removing two roads from the public road system.

Martin County Attorney Melissa Phelps explained that the magistrates would not vote during the meeting to adopt or remove roads but would vote to send the lists to a committee for review.

“We have to advertise it,” Phelps said. “We have to have a committee, including the road foreman and two disinterested parties appointed by the judge, to go out and look at [the roads]. Then they will come back and make a written recommendation. Then you all will make a motion in the next meeting to adopt or not or to remove or not.”

No questions arose about the list of 21 roads for possible adoption. The conflict centered on a road listed for possible removal from the county road plan, specifically LC Jude Road, located off Long Branch in Lovely.

Matt and Pamela McCoy have a deed to the land on which LC Jude Road is located. They petitioned the court to remove the road from the county road system, saying it was adopted in March 2020 without their knowledge or permission.

According to county records, the McCoys’ neighbor Jessie Jude, who also lives on LC Jude Road, petitioned the court to adopt the road in 2020. The committee that reviewed the petition and recommended its approval to the court included former Deputy Judge Steven Goble, former judge’s secretary Debra Harmon and county road foreman Titus Marcum.

The McCoys said they discovered their road was “awaiting an easement by the property owner to be adopted into the county road plan” when they attempted to change the 911 name.

“After stating that we refused to sign an easement, the road was entered into county ordinance illegally through falsified documents,” Matt McCoy said.

The McCoys hired a lawyer and a land surveyor to prove their property ownership. The attorney wrote a letter March 27 to the fiscal court, judge/executive, county attorney and District 4 Magistrate Junior Hunt advising them to “cease and desist” efforts to acquire LC Jude Road into the public road system.

On April 12, the county recorded an easement in the Martin County Clerk’s Office between Jessie Jude and the fiscal court.

The McCoys and Jude both attended the meeting Thursday.

“If it gets voted out, what do I do?” Jude asked. “I live above my neighbors here, and I’m blocked in. How do I do this? What do I do? As a citizen that’s owned this property there since ’79 – and I’m not discouraging these guys at all, but how can you turn a road back over and block me in? To me, that’s against all the rules. I don’t get it. How could it even go that way?”

Phelps addressed the question, saying she had spoken to McCoy several times, “and he understands that it’s a public road.”

“You still go in and out,” Phelps told Jude. “It’s just the county doesn’t maintain it. He can’t block it.”

“I’m trying to make sure that I don’t lose what I own and accessibility to it,” said Jude.

“It’s my understanding that this didn’t get adopted as a county road until 2020,” said Phelps. “And all parties lived there prior. My understanding is we adopted it in 2020. As far as our county road plan, that’s when it was taken in; that’s our documentation of when it got a [county road] number. Long before that it was a public road. You all never had issues before then.”

Jude said the county maintained the road during former Judge/Executive Kelly Callaham’s administration.

“They did all the maintenance; they blacktopped it,” said Jude. “You may be right, but I’m just telling you what I know and what I saw. My objective is I don’t want to get blocked in.”

Matt McCoy stood up and said he would never block Jude.

“I think the world of you all,” McCoy told Jude. “You all have never done anything and I’ve got no reason to do anything to you all.”

McCoy said he did not understand how the issue came about.

“My question to the fiscal court is, how did this road get in the county road plan in 2020 without me even being contacted, talked to or anything, and this is my property in entirety?” stated McCoy. “I know this is my property in its entirety because I had a survey conducted. As far as roads that go across my land, there is no recorded right-of-way across my property. That is by Westek Engineering. They came in and did title, deed and easement searches.”

McCoy said he only wanted to protect his property.

“If it’s mine, I want it. If it’s not, I don’t,” said McCoy.

“If I had moved into this home and this road was already in the county road plan, I would not be standing here now. But the fact that this was done behind my back by him,” he added, pointing toward District 4 Magistrate Junior Hunt, “that’s what the problem is.”

Judge/Executive Lon Lafferty assured McCoy and Jude that the people on the review committee would be disinterested parties and the court would have a final resolution at the May meeting.

“I would advise you all to get together,” Lafferty said.

McCoy addressed Sheriff John Kirk.

“John, have you ever gotten a call that I’ve blocked anyone on that road?” asked McCoy.

“No,” Kirk replied.

“I would never do that,” said McCoy.

McCoy said a 30-foot right-of-way would put the road inside his bedroom. He also said the former property owner, not the county, blacktopped the road through a private arrangement, and the county had never maintained his road before the easement issue came up.

Since the issue arose, according to McCoy, the magistrate directed the county road department to dump rock on the creek bank against McCoy’s wishes. He said the road department also came to scrape the road once, and he asked them to leave.

“A school bus couldn’t get up this road,” said McCoy. “It isn’t wide enough. If it did manage to get up here, it wouldn’t be able to turn around.”

The list of roads to add to the county road plan include Doc Lane, Marcum Lane, Stacy Drive, Fletcher Mountain, Bowen Cemetery Road, Flora Johnson Road, Wade Mollette Road, Locust Lane, Collins Creek Road, Howell Road, Harris Street, Floyd Street, Groundhog Hollow, Firehouse Lane, Paul Johnson Lane, Tipple Road, Mann Drive, Sammons Lane, Parsley Road, Tom Evans Road and Jacobs Lane.

District 5 Magistrate Ronald Workman told the other court members that Paul Johnson Road is the road off Firehouse Lane to the new Warfield Fire Department station.

“Paul Johnson was the first fire chief in Warfield,” Workman said.

In addition to LC Jude Road, the list of roads for possible removal from the county road plan includes Hammond Loop.

“My question about removing these roads is if you have a major problem like a mining break or anything that takes the road out, they’re going to be responsible for it, correct?” asked Workman.

“Correct,” said Phelps.

“It won’t be us going back and fixing it,” added Workman.

“That’s correct,” advised Phelps.