The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1357204
B-4 Wednesday, March 31, 2021 The Press-Dispatch EAST GIBSON Submit East Gibson news items: Call: 812-354-8500 Email: egnews@pressdispatch.net or bring in a hard copy: 820 E. Poplar Street, Petersburg Perplexing property issues have surveyors in standoff By Janice Barniak South Gibson surveyor Fred Kuester, who's worked surveying since 1965, is not what most people would call a rabble rouser. He's a de- tail man who measures properties and helps when people want to sell off a piece of land, so that the acreage and description in a property's deed will mean something consistent for years to come. Not long ago, he submitted work on Sean Whitten's request to the county asking to subdivide land in Haubstadt by his house to expand his ownership. "We got into it with the subdivi- sion control committee at that time," said Kuester, and Whitten eventual- ly decided not to expand that parcel, after some conflict about the Harri- son marker. "I've had two or three clients on this." Now adjacent landowner Richard Straub would like to sell a piece to his nephew, Tobe Whitten, and this sum- mer, Kuester's work went back to the subdivision control committee, and the same issue came up. At the heart of it, Kuester says, is that descriptions of the property boundaries used the Harrison Mon- ument set in 1988 as a section cor- ner reference point, and the land di- vision request was rejected, he said, because he didn't use a new marker set in 2016 as the reference point, a marker put in more recently by the Gibson County Surveyor's Office. The monument was put in by Greg Kissel, according to County Survey- or Scott Martin, who believes that was done while former County Sur- veyor Michael Stevenson led the of- fice. In 2018, County Surveyor Scott Martin signed off on a document say- ing the 2016 monument was reset. Kuester says the monument is not in the correct place. Martin said he believes farm equipment moved the original monu- ment, but that, he said, is immaterial. The important thing, Martin says, is that when surveyed, a monument was put in where historical docu- ments indicate it should be, where it would have been laid out when the county was laid out in one mile squares in 1805. Martin said his job is to perpetu- ate the monuments and that one, ac- cording to the documentation, is in the right place. The problem, said Kuester, is that's not where it was, as is indicat- ed by a metal nail on top of the pin near the middle of the road he said shows where the monument should be. He believes it's four and a half feet out of place. "You can get distances out of these old notes. I think that's what got them in trouble. They're using old distances. Some of them are pretty crude," he said. "In the 1800s, they were out here with compasses, and the land was all mostly uninhabited, and if they missed a few feet, no one was to say. So the law says no mat- ter how big a mistake they made in the 1800s, the corner is where they set the monument." That section corner marker, which he's circled with neon spraypaint for visibility, is what the deeds of the ad- joining properties are based on, and that includes property owner Sean Whitten and client Richard Straub. One reason the 1988 marker he's circled makes sense, Kuester said, is that many pins for section corners are near the middle of roads, because that allowed two farmers to give up equal amounts of land for the road; one person wouldn't lose more corn than another because of the road go- ing in. Kuester said even if the 1805 sec- tion cornering was wrong, the deeds have been written based on that marker, the law tells surveyors to use the pins that are already there. Martin contends no one created a "new" pin or changed anything, and the property lines and section cor- ners are where they've always been and said the request to the commit- tee didn't meet the requirements. Kuester said he's been told he should acknowledge the re-set marker as the marker for the prop- erty lines. He said if he does that, owner Sean Whitten will have less land than his deed says he paid for, it will create a future issue when peo- ple look to fence their yards. "He says I gotta call that the sec- tion corner. And here's the kicker," said Kuester, "here's what Scott says I gotta do is use my corner to make the drawing, the plat, the descrip- tion." He said he's been asked to draw using his corner but act as though the corner he's referring to is Mar- tin's corner. If Kuester uses the Mar- tin's section corner, there will be gap or overlap, he said. He said if his corner wasn't the val- id place to measure from, the survey- or wouldn't tell him to use it to draw the map. "Scott swears his corner is the gos- pel...I don't believe it at all. I'm just as sure it's never been there before they came along. He thinks mine's worth nothing, but then turns around and says for your survey, use your corner. He says this has nothing to do with property lines," said Kuester. "To say a section corner doesn't control prop- erty lines is a lie." He said Martin told them he talk- ed to a member of the state's licens- ing board about him to try to get him in trouble, but Martin ended by say- ing all Kuester had to do was label the section corner so that it agreed with Martin. "What would be the difference between that and fraud? " Kuester asked. He said it would change things for the Schmitts as well, instead of their property going to the road, it would cross it, giving them a few feet of Whitten's yard, contrary to the way they've always farmed it. While it's a small number of feet, that changes the taxes and invali- dates the acreage when the clients go to sell. "What about my clients? Should I go along with something that takes ground away from them and confus- es their title," he asked. "He sees the problems it would create, that's why he said to use my corner, but that's just postponing the explosion." Martin called the Star-Times Mon- day to say he believed last week's sto- ry written from the information pre- sented at the commissioners' meet- ing mis-characterized the disagree- ment. He'd seen the story early, in the e-edition, and said it focused too much on the historic monument be- ing damaged, which, he says, is im- material to whether it is placed cor- rectly, which he says it is. He said the article also used the terms section corners and property lines too interchangeably. Section corners do not affect property lines, he said, and the section corners are where they have always been. The property lines are where they have always been, he added. Kuester, however, believes charac- terizing issue as involving property lines was correct, and the monument location is at the crux of the issue. Martin helpfully corrected the ti- tle of Greg Kissel, who was called the county surveyor in the previous ar- ticle, but at the time had only been working under the county surveyor. This is Fred Kuester's 1988-era section marker that he's cir- cled in neon pink; it's approximately midway across CR 1050 S., with a spike to mark where it is. He said that is typical of section markers because often people tried to take approximately the same amount of land from the two farmers by building the road along the property line between them. Kuester shows this corner map, that has on it a notation from County Surveyor Scott Martin about how the monument was re- placed in 2018. The note said it was put in the correct place — Kuester disagrees. The "bent pin" in the notation is, Kuester be- lieves, the section corner location. Fencers beware: Surveyor Fred Kuester and County Surveyor Scott Martin have different ideas about how to identify the section corner near this land, and while Martin said it will not change the property line to go by what he said has always been the section corner, Kuester said it will result in a loss of land for Haubstadt resident Sean Whitten, as well as making this boundary line disput- able for years to come. Toyota partners with Isaiah 1:17 to give bikes The Isaiah 1:17 Project is seeking applications for its Dream Cycles program. Dream Cycles seeks to improve mental and physical health, mobility and introduce responsibili- ty for at-risk youth experiencing fos- ter home placement by providing a bicycle and the accompanying safe- ty equipment. Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Indi- ana, Inc., partnered with The Isaiah 1:17 Project in 2020 with an $18,260 grant to support the purchase of 150 bicycles, safety equipment and asso- ciated materials. This May, Toyota Indiana's busi- ness partnering group, Toyota Chris- tian Fellowship, will facilitate a vir- tual bike build, where volunteers as- semble 100 bicycles using the com- pany's renown Toyota Production System. Bicycles will be available for chil- dren ages 3-17 in Daviess, Warrick, Vanderburgh, Knox, Pike, Posey, Gibson and Spencer counties, and are available to children currently placed with fostering families. This also includes children placed out- side their homes in kinship care, or children in homes who are work- ing with CASA, DCS, or other pro- tective or advocacy agencies related to foster care. Applications may be obtained at www.TheIsaiah117Proj- ect.org/dreamcycles or through a child's caseworker. All applications must be submitted electronically no later than Friday, April 23 at 4p.m. Families will be notified of the status of their application two weeks prior to the event. Easter goes to the dogs (and cats) By Janice Barniak Gibson County Animal Services hosted an Easter-themed adop- tion event Sunday that will contin- ue throughout this week at the shel- ter for those looking for some-bun- ny to love. Adopters can choose an egg from a basket to reduce or waive their pet adoption fees. The shelter is still working to clear a few of the sponsored animals from the Janu- ary Adopt-a-thon, further increasing the potential to pay nothing for a pet. One of those animals looking for a home is Sissy. Hit by a car, one-year- old Sissy's bruised hip isn't keeping her from enjoying life after an ini- tially grim prognosis after a week in recovery. "They said she was going to be dead in the morning," Mary Essary remembered Sunday, as Sissy posed with Deputy Bruce Vanoven and the Easter Bunny for a glamour shot. "I was in tears," said Animal Con- trol Officer Theresa Brown. "Seri- ously, we thought she broke some- thing. She's ready for a home. She's come through a big ordeal." As for cats, the shelter is clear- ing out as much as possible in an- ticipation for kitten season. They al- ready have one pregnant cat in the shelter, and over the coming weeks of spring, locals will notice, as sea- sonal as allergies and Easter lilies, new crops of kittens are being born. "We'll need litter and kitten chow soon," Essary said. "They just nev- er stop." The kittens are a symptom of something the shelter is trying to address another way, howev- er, during a Feral Cat Awareness month, where they'll sterilize up to 40 feral or "community" cats at no cost April 17 for those who can get them to the Feline Fix and Pet Friendly Indiana clinic in Evans- ville. For more information on having a free-roaming cat sterilized, call the shelter at 812-386 -8079. The shelter is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Thursday this week, and from 10 a.m. to noon Fri- day to accommodate the holiday, for those planning to take advantage of the Easter egg adoption discounts. Mattingly, Ian, Whitney and Rylan Savage posed for a photo with the Easter Bunny at the Gib- son County Animal Services Easter adoption event. All week, locals can continue to pull golden eggs out that will have a discount or even free adoption inside.