Resident Asks County To Take Over Crow Lane

A resident asked Crawford County commissioners on Tuesday to take over Crow Lane, which is currently a private road between Highway P and Highway UU.

Larry Hunter resides there and said there are about 10 addresses on the road. 

District 2 Commissioner Jared Boast couldn’t commit to an answer. 

“We have other situations with roads and one involves a lawsuit,” Boast said. “At this time, it might be a process for the county to take over right in the middle of working on that.”

Hunter said the road has always been private. He told commissioners he was advised by attorney Stephen Paulus to reach out to them in order to get the process started. 

Boast outlined how the road would be adopted, which includes all property owners agreeing and going through paperwork. An easement already exists and Boast seemed to indicate that may check off one of the boxes.

Through the first three months of the year, the county has been asked by two different groups of property owners to adopt part or the whole of a road.

In January, a group of residents from Rustic Acres in Bourbon requested that the county maintain a section of the subdivision that did not appear to be part of a 1986 agreement with owners and commissioners.

A few weeks earlier, the county was asked to adopt Jinney Lane in Cuba, a road that appeared to have been maintained by a county worker who had a relative living there. That county worker has since retired. It was maintained for at least two decades, but records do not indicate that it was ever listed as a county road turned into the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) for reimbursement.

Boast said he could not discuss details of the pending lawsuit and he was unable to elaborate further.