Resident, Commission In Dispute Over Old Mill Road

Sometime in the 1980s, Keith Shockley was unhappy with a Crawford County road grader.

According to Shockley, who lives on Old Mill Road, the grader pushed two feet of snow across the middle of the road and did not clean it out. 

“I told him if he could not do any better than that, do not come back,” said Shockley to county commissioners on July 31. 

Since that point, Crawford County has not maintained Old Mill Road, which is located in the unincorporated community of Oak Hill, north of Highway C. 

Shockley, who is attempting to sell his property, asked the commissioners that day to designate Old Mill Road as a public road.

On Tuesday, Shockley threatened to file a summary judgement against the county, at which point County Clerk John Martin stepped in. 

“Having said that, you go right ahead,” Martin said to Shockley. “They cannot discuss this anymore.”

Shockley was addressing commissioners on the issue Tuesday for the third time in the last two months. When he initially appeared July 31, he claimed the road had never been abandoned, even though commissioners and Martin maintain that no county expenditure or labor for more than five years is default abandonment.

The issue may now wind up in court.

Shockley unloaded pages and pages of case law on commissioners Tuesday. Shockley and Martin went back-and-forth twice. After giving commissioners time to glance through the various statutes, Shockley said he wanted to clear up what the problem was.

District 2 Commissioner Jared Boast stepped in.

“I think the problem is that you want to sell your house and you want us to fix the road,” Boast said. 

Shockley said no, but Boast continued on. 

“It was fine when you had control of it, now you want someone else to take on the burden,” he said.

“The burden is still there,” Shockley said. 

Presiding Commissioner Leo Sanders told Shockley that the commission are not attorneys and it would be given to Prosecuting Attorney Kent Howald. Sanders said the commission would be in touch with Shockley.

“My intention is to get the commission to declare this as a public road,” Shockley said. “I will be filing a summary judgement.”

Martin cut Shockley off from there. Shockley had previously threatened a summary judgement on July 31 unless the county could show him that the road was formally abandoned. Boast said he would go through a list of roads that the county turns into the Missouri Department of Transportation for funding.

When Shockley returned Aug. 14, Boast told him he could not find anything showing that county maintenance had been performed since the 1980s on Old Mill Road. 

Sullivan Independent News

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