FRUITLAND ROAD TO BE RESTORED

FRUITLAND -- The owner of a Fruitland subdivision agreed Friday to restore a gravel road in and out of the subdivision until a dispute over easements can be settled.

Allen McDowell, owner of the Cher-Ron-Doe Estates subdivision, agreed to restore Comanche Lane, a gravel road in and out of the area, to allow residents of a neighboring subdivision to use the gravel road.

On Feb. 29, McDowell used earth-moving equipment to destroy the road at its entrance into Cher-Ron-Doe Estates. On Tuesday he put barrels up across the road where he thought it was still passable.

On Monday the road is supposed to be reopened under an agreement reached Friday between McDowell and several families who live along the road in an unplatted subdivision.

The agreement "temporarily resolves" the dispute over who has a right to use the road, said J. Patrick O'Loughlin, an attorney for those families.

The road is to be restored, O'Loughlin said Friday, but the families will go to court in June to "establish their rights to easements" on Comanche Lane.

"My clients have the right to continue to use the street until this lawsuit is decided," he said.

O'Loughlin and his clients had sought a restraining order against McDowell to force him to open the road, and Circuit Judge John Grimm was scheduled to hear arguments Friday in Cape Girardeau. But the agreement was worked out without the hearing, O'Loughlin said.

McDowell had claimed that the residents had not paid upkeep on roads in Cher-Ron-Doe even though they regularly used them.

That's not true, O'Loughlin said.

He said his clients paid $2,800 for gravel and other maintenance on Comanche Lane "and Allen McDowell hasn't paid a penny for that. I'll be happy to show you the receipts."

O'Loughlin said that when McDowell sold his clients their lots he granted them easements on Comanche Lane up to the point where it enters Cher-Ron-Doe.

The section McDowell "dug up," O'Loughlin said, is from the subdivision entrance to Melissa's Street, which connects with Julie's Street, which connects to Route W.

Those easements leave his clients "landlocked," O'Loughlin said. "The law says you can't land lock subdivisions."

O'Louglin also said that one of the families -- Earl and Joyce Blechle -- have an easement allowing them access to Melissa's Street, and that McDowell's destruction of the road violated that easement.

McDowell had also said that the plaintiffs could use Cree, another gravel road which accesses their property. But that's a private road, O'Loughlin said, and only a few of his clients have easements allowing them to use it.

"These people used to be able to come up here and pick up their mail," he said, pointing to the junction of Comanche and Melissa on a map of the subdivision. "Now they have to drive into Jackson."

McDowell, reached Friday for comment, referred all questions to his attorney, Spencer Edwards of Sikeston. Edwards did not return phone calls Friday afternoon.

Plaintiffs suing McDowell for the easements include Robert Simpher, Curtis Huck, Earl and Joyce Blechle, Richard and Donna Coram, David and Margie Melson, Steven and Carla Fellows and Danny and Vicki Bridges.