Tanglewood board files lawsuit seeking judgment on roads

By Charlene Sims, info@linncountyjournal.com

MOUND CITY – On Friday, June 6, the Tanglewood Lake Owners Association (TLOA) filed in district court a lawsuit against the Board of County Commissioners of Linn County, Kansas, requesting a declaratory judgment on the issue of whether the roads in the lake development are public or private. The lawsuit was filed by Paola attorney Darcy Domoney on behalf of the TLOA board.

That is the latest round in the back-and-forth on the matter since earlier this year when a group of Tanglewood residents had felony charges against them thrown out by district court Judge Andrea Purvis. The residents had been charged with felonies for removing the electronic gates after being denied vehicle access to their property and homes, in some cases for years.

The attorney for the group convinced Purvis that the deed restriction on the lake development properties ensured that the roads would remain public and that by removing the gates the group had removed an illegal obstruction to a public road.

The TLOA has maintained that the development’s roads are private according to an accepted belief going back to the mid 1990s that the development was a gated community and the roads therefore were private.

While County Counselor Jacklyn Paletta has maintained that the roads are private – an opinion shared by former county counselor Gary Thompson – the TLOA has left the gates open until it has a defining decision on the issue. At the same time, some residents who were involved in the court case maintain they are public roads.

That has led to uncertainty about who should maintain the roads. Meanwhile two rounds of drenching rain events have wreaked havoc on the development’s roads.

Over the past several weeks, Linn County Commissioner Alison Hamilton has been in contact with several residents of the development, including TLOA members.

A Facebook posting on Saturday, May 31, on the Friends of Tanglewood Lake page made it sound like Hamilton was working independently to solve whether Tanglewood Lakes roads are private or public.

The post by Don Bendetti said he had received a call from Hamilton that day to discuss the matter. The post said that he believes that other Tanglewood residents have also received calls from Hamilton. The post further said that even though Hamilton doesn’t represent the Tanglewood commission district, she has been calling people there and telling them that she is “very supportive and feels Tanglewood should remain private.”

The post further explained that because of pending litigation regarding a civil case initiated by the TLOA board, the Linn County Commissioners are not supposed to talk about it.

Bendetti told the followers of that Facebook page that there will be a hearing next week which he hopes will soon bring closure to this matter. He goes on to tell the Facebook page followers to not criticize the TLOA board but thank them as they have been working diligently on this matter.

At the commission meeting on Tuesday, May 27, Hamilton told Tanglewood resident Jim Hendershot, “We’ve been advised not to address anyone regarding Tanglewood Lakes because everything is pending litigation at this point.” 

In a phone interview on June 4, Hamilton said that she had received approximately 200 calls or emails from residents of Tanglewood Lakes. She said that she felt that she had to answer the residents to let them know where the county stood on the issue. She said she felt that it would only cause more frustration among the people if their calls and emails were not answered.

When asked what hearing she was talking about that Bendetti referred to, Hamilton said that she had messaged the county counselor about where the county stood on this issue and she was told that Tanglewood’s attorney said that a case would be filed by Friday, June 6. And that is what she had been telling the Tanglewood residents.

Hamilton forwarded a copy of the filing to the Journal.

Hamilton said her understanding was that Paletta will address this at the Monday, June 9, commission meeting.

She said that she had also told the residents that she would not personally be contesting the roads being private. 

In an interview with Commissioner Jason Hightower, who is commissioner for Tanglewood, he said that he was not returning calls to the residents because of Paletta’s recommendation that the commissioners not talk about this with people at Tanglewood because of pending litigation.