C Street Gets 'F' For Frustration

Valmore Harpin of C Street blew up at Tuesday night's City Council, frustrated he said because the city has failed to answer his questions about the status of the truncated street he lives on. Council President Ronald Boucher had to gavel him to order when he shouted past his allotted two minutes.

Boucher's been counseling him to be patient, but Harpin said he's been waiting a year — year in which the tension between he and his neighbors over the street has erupted into competing criminal court filings and, says Harpin, repeated harassment.

The trouble apparently started over a paving project and the size of the road, which is little more than a driveway for the only two houses on the street. Unlike its A,B,D and E sisters, C Street stop short even though a map of the lots laid out along the alphabetized lanes indicates the right of way goes all the way to city-owned land where Drury High School is located.

His neighbor's building up the landscape where the road ends with railroad ties; that will block the right of way for the city and anyone else, says Harpin.

Harpin says the city has plowed and maintained the narrow road during the 15 years he has lived there. But he wants the right of way clarified and street brought up to regulation width. A survey was done to figure out where the city's land ends and the two homeowners' property begins. The lines cut off a chunk of Harpin's front yard and driveway but he says that's OK. Widening the road will alleviate problems with his neighbors parking on the street and widen a neutral zone between them.

"I just want it to end," he said.

We've got a call in to the city's Administrative Officer Jay Green, who we're sure can shed more light on this story.