After a year of fighting to close a county-maintained road, a Neeses man says he’s willing to go to court to prove the road is on his private property.

Jimmie D. Fogle closed about 400 feet of Starwood Drive near Neeses in Aug. 2007, claiming it is a part of S-38-186, which was closed by the state in 1982.

But Orangeburg County officials contend the road has been county maintained and a public road for years without complaint by Fogle.

As a result, Orangeburg County attorney D’Anne Haydel says the county will ask the court to determine that the road has been publicly used and maintained at the “implied dedication” of Fogle for the past 26 years. The county wants to show Fogle was aware of the road’s public use and continued to allow it to be used by the public.

“The road was used for eons and Mr. Fogle had ownership and never complained about it until recently,” Haydel said. “It is an implied dedication to the county and public use.”

But Fogle says it should not be up to him to enforce law. He is accusing both the S.C. Department of Transportation and the Orangeburg County Department of Public Works of failing to comply with state statute.

Starwood Drive is a one-mile dirt road that runs along Fire Tower Road in the Neeses area before it terminates at Juniper Road.

“I am not giving up,” Fogle said. “It will go to court as far as I am concerned. I am not going to back out and say you are right and I am wrong.”

Fogle said he has received legal counsel in the past year, but has avoided going to court due to attorney fee estimates of $5,000 to $10,000.

“Why should I as a private citizen spend ... my money to defend state law?” Fogle said. “But I will not quit as long as I am alive and have breath. I will fight it just because of the principle. It is not worth $100 to close that road. It is worth thousands of dollars to me to see that people don’t trample on me.”

The General Assembly ordered the closure of S-38-138 and its removal from the state highway system. Fogle says there is no doubt in his mind that his portion of the road includes S-38-138 and is not a part of the county road Starwood.

When Fogle closed the road in Aug. 2007, First Judicial Circuit Court Judge James Williams issued an injunction reopening the road due to safety concerns. He ordered the road open “until a final resolution” could be reached.

Orangeburg County Council held a special called meeting and unanimously issued an order to “immediately and temporarily” remove Fogle’s barrier until the status of the road is better understood.

The county said the status of the road was under investigation but Fogle’s action prompted immediate action. County officials said they worried that after the road had been publicly maintained for over a quarter of a century, the closure would prove dangerous to motorists and emergency vehicles.

But Fogle says he is still waiting for the issue to reach a conclusion.

Haydel has acknowledged S-38-138 was removed from the state system on May 21, 1982.

But she has said the common practice was that removal from the state system would mean the county would assume maintenance of the road, not that the road would be closed. She said Fogle didn’t complain at the time.

But Fogle contends he did complain via telephone. At the time, he was living in Colorado.

He says his family, which has owned the property for years, called him and asked if he wanted to sign a petition to close the road back in 1982.

“We all said ‘yes,’” he said, noting it was not until a portion of the road was left open that he began to realize something was amiss. “The law is pretty plain to me. ‘Close,’ that is a big word in there. Close and remove from the state highway system.”

Fogle returned to Orangeburg County to be closer to his family about 14 years ago. He intended to eventually move back to the “old home place.”

Fogle said he has inherited the property, about 30 acres, from his family. He says it used to part of a 286-acre family farm, with most of it being sold over the years.

“I am the last family member through an inheritance to own any of that,” Fogle said. “It came to me through my grandmother and grandfather.”

Fogle said he recalls growing up on the property and has no doubt the road is private.

“I watched the county road being built,” he said, noting that the county road was built after the state road, according to maps of the time. Fogle says the road and his property, according to the map, was closed back in 1982. “This is absolute proof in a picture.”

His mother and cousin raised concerns about trash being dumped along the road. A neighbor then informed him a portion had been closed.

“That road was on two people’s property, mine and the person’s next door,” Fogle said. “They closed it at his property line and they gave him his property back.”

Fogle said he thinks just because he did not live on the land, the county and state felt they could continue to use his property for public access.

“I was planning to build a house there and I don’t want people driving through my yard,” he said. “I don’t want them dumping trash there and what else goes on there at night.”

Fogle says he closed the road in Aug. 2007 after about six months of what he says were complaints that “fell on deaf ears.”

In an effort to prove his point, Fogle has a binder with materials gathered over 1.5 years related to the road, including correspondence to various state and government agencies. Fogle says despite all correspondence, nothing has been done.

He says he does not understand how he has been able to find documentation, but is being told by the government that research is still needed.

“So far it has been a one-way street,” he said. “I am sending them all this proof and they are sending me nothing.”

T&D Staff Writer Gene Zaleski can be reached by e-mail at gzaleski@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5551.

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