An inability to reach the landowner has delayed plans to build a dog park in the south part of Iola.
City Administrator Carl Slaugh said the city has been unable to reach the owner of land along South Chestnut Street, between Rock and Vine streets.
The land has long been abandoned, formerly holding a trailer house destroyed in the 2007 flood.
The land is owned by the estate of the late Wayne Still, a long-time firefighter and Iola’s fire chief in the mid 1990s. His widow, Earlene, was last known to be living near Monmouth Springs in northern Arkansas, Assistant City Administrator Corey Schinstock reported.
Problem is, the city cannot reach Still. All letters notifying her of such things as weed violations and mowing orders have been returned unread.
The city has mowed the property each year since the flood, compiling those bills onto back taxes owed.
City Council members gave permission for Iolan Ray Shannon — a dog park advocate — to personally deliver papers to Still’s last known mailing address in Monmouth Springs.
The papers would grant the city immediate ownership of the land through a quitclaim deed process.
The primary difference between a quitclaim deed and other types of deeds is that the person selling or giving away the property — the grantor — makes no guarantees or promises that the property is free of debt, nor does the granter guarantee that no one else claims the property.
Otherwise, the city must wait months, or more likely years, for the back taxes to build up to the point the property is put for sale at a sheriff’s auction.
“Needless to say, the process has been moving very slowly,” Slaugh said.
City Attorney Chuck Apt is writing up language for the quitclaim deed to be sent with Shannon.
The city agreed to pay up to $10,000 for the dog park, which coupled with $10,000 raised privately, would be enough to build a fence around the proposed area, while adding water facilities for the dogs.
While councilmen were unanimous in their decision to fund the park, they were split on location, voting 4-4 to place the park on Chestnut instead of two other possible locations in south Iola. The deadlock prompted Bill Shirley to cast the tie-breaking vote in favor of the Chestnut site.
So now, backers of the dog park must wait for the title to clear so work to convert the property for canine use can begin.
