A temporary injunction hearing regarding Jay Mills Contracting, Inc. and William Pace in regards to County Road 180 is continuing after District Judge Judge Cashon extended the hearing Thursday, Nov. 2.
Attorney Shay Isham is representing Jay Mills Contracting, Inc. while Attorney Ryan Taylor is representing William Pace. Taylor is also representing several other land owners along CR 180.
In the daylong hearing, the first witness called was Jay Mills, who is vice president of Jay Mills Contracting Inc. though he is mostly retired.
The property in question is a 96-acre tract of land that was purchased by Jay Mills Contracting, Inc. in August 2023 next to CR 180. Based on a survey prepared by Zane Griffin, Mills’ grandson, the piece of property would only be 96 acres unless it included a portion of County Road 180. Jay Mills Contracting, Inc. undertook moving the road to get the “missing acreage.”
According to Mills’ testimony, he went to Commissioner Joe Brown and told him the road was in the wrong place.
“Did you file a petition with the commissioners court?” Taylor asked.
“No, I didn’t think I needed to,” Mills answered.
Mills stated that while moving the road he tore down dead trees and briar bushes that were on the county’s property.
According to the deed on record, the road acted as a boundary for the property that Jay Mills Contracting, Inc. purchased from Steve and Lanette McCoy. One of the witnesses, Kenneth Leatherwood, who is a registered professional land surveyor, stated that after everything was examined the original road was in the correct place because an error in land calculations would be divided among property equally.
During the hearing, Taylor presented evidence that Jay Mills Contracting, Inc. allegedly relocated the road, moved mailboxes and prohibited neighboring landowners from accessing their own mail. He also presented photographic evidence taken by neighbors that trees were destroyed by the building of a new road.
On Oct. 20, Judge Cashon signed an ex parte restraining order for Jay Mills Contracting, Inc. to stop all work regarding CR 180.
Taylor’s witnesses provided testimony that work had allegedly been done on the project up to the day before the Nov. 2 hearing, however, Mills testified that the majority of this work was done to secure cattle on the land so they could not get out onto roads.
Witness and neighbor Cheyenne Wimberley testified she had never seen cattle on the property since Jay Mills Contracting, Inc. had purchased the property.
Wimberley described her first encounter with Jay Mills as occurring on Oct. 9 when she and her family went to town and came back.
“We saw him pulling trees from one side of the road to the other,” she said on the stand. “I was in shock someone was grabbing the trees.”
Wimberley stated that according to Mills, he had purchased the land and he was moving the county road, telling her that about 1-acre was in the road.
Wimberley who is a professional horse trainer said she and her family enjoy trees and the boundary that those trees provide for their land.
“Every day they cleared more and it got worse,” she said.
Wimberley also stated that moving the road had created drainage problems that were not there before.
“We want the trees back and the peace that was there,” she said. “Put the road back where it was.”
Stacey Israel, another neighbor, was also called as a witness. Her parents Joe and Linda Israel bought the nearby property. Since her dad’s passing three years ago, Stacey explained the property had become extremely sentimental to her and her family.
During her testimony, she stated that the road had been moved against the entryway to their property.
“Whether it’s an inch or a whole lot of feet, it’s a lot to us,” she said about the property.
Israel described her first meeting with Mills while he was on a backhoe and said he refused to get off the equipment, so she climbed up to have a conversation with him at his approval.
“He said it was his property and he would run me over,” she said. Israel said she allegedly stepped in front of the equipment and asked him if he was a man of his word and to do it. Mills took no action.
Also in testimony it was stated that during the course of moving the road, Mills allegedly moved the family’s mailboxes and then painted an orange mark on the ground indicating Mills’ property line.
“He told me not to check my mail cause we’d be on his property,” Israel said.
Israel also testified that a playground for her nieces that used to be a safe distance from the road is now extremely close, a fence was allegedly destroyed, none of the four houses on the property have phone service because of lines being cut and there is now a 3.5 to 4 foot drop off near the front of their property, which presents a danger to her mom.
She also testified that she had seen work being done on the roadway as late as Oct. 23.
“We want our land back and justice served. We want back privacy and for our kids to have safety again,” she said, when asked by Taylor what she would ultimately like to see happen.
Several reported that no approval for the moving of this road was given by the Erath County Commissioners Court and the first time it appeared as an agenda item was at the Oct. 23 commissioners court meeting. No action was taken at that time and two agenda items regarding the road were removed from the agenda.
Mills, Israel and Wimberley all stated that they had allegedly consulted with Precinct 3 Commissioner Joe Brown and Brown had been out to see the roadwork.
Brown was not called as a witness for Thursday’s hearing but will be called by Isham for testimony on Tuesday, Nov. 14 at the hearing’s continuance.
Judge Cashon renewed the temporary restraining order for another 14 days and recessed the hearing until Tuesday.
“You better not be messing with anyone’s mailboxes or anyone’s access,” Cashon said at the end of Thursday’s hearing.