By By Mary-Allison Lancaster Managing editor
An ongoing dispute among the residents of Dogwood Lane and Matt Waters, a resident who wants to add a right-of-way at the end of the lane, was addressed by a concerned resident during Tuesday's City Council meeting.
Waters currently lives in Little Rock, Ark., but is a former resident of Brewton and owns property located to the east of Dogwood Lane. Waters was unable to attend the meeting due to health problems, according to his attorney, Gordon Batson, who addressed the council with Waters' proposition.
He added that Waters has the intention to sell his property, approximately 11 acres, and has a single-home buyer interested in purchasing the parcel of land, which runs perpendicular to undeveloped city property.
Gail Ladnier and other Dogwood Lane residents who attended Tuesday night's council meeting said Waters does not own the lane and that it doesn't meet the specifications to be a street.
Ladnier said in 2002 a petition was signed by all the residents living on Dogwood Lane objecting the opening of a new lane at the end of the street.
She told council members that residents feared the new lane would promote a subdivision, possibly cause a traffic overload and said the road could not hold traffic for heavy equipment such as dump trucks, which ultimately would have to be used to construct a "road, driveway, or whatever."
Ladnier said Dogwood
According to Mayor Ted Jennings, the Waters case has been brought to council's attention two to three times in the past. As a result, Jennings referred the item to a committee chaired by Ann Marie Sasser, with council members Cary Barton and Frank Cotten.
The committee is expected to meet soon and should have some idea of what action to take by February.
In other council news, Jennings commended the "outstanding job city employees did with the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan."
He recommended giving city employees a one-time wage increase, which will be distributed in separate checks and would be viewed as a "bonus."
Jennings proposed to increase wages for city employees who were involved during the hurricane and who are still employed with the city. Council members agreed to the following: