Friday, August 29, 2003
The search could be completed within a matter of weeks.
By SHERRI L. SHAULIS
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
NILES -- It could take searching through a mountain of paperwork to turn over a molehill of land to some city residents.
Law Director J. Terrence Dull said a local company is performing a title search to determine if a small section of land at Vienna Avenue and Lafayette Street is, in fact, owned by the federal government.
The land was used decades ago as a city park but has been undeveloped for several years now.
Employees of the parks and recreation department are responsible for maintaining the land, but access for vehicles is difficult and city officials wanted to sell the land to the neighbors or vacate it, Dull said.
The question of who actually owns the property arose when officials found an old deed saying the federal government had taken the land to provide for the development of homes for soldiers returning from World War II.
Dull said he got a call several weeks ago from an attorney with the Department of Labor in Cleveland who became aware of the situation from a newspaper article.
What's being done
"Basically, we need to do a title search to see who really does own the land," Dull said. "We have to find out if in fact the federal government does own the land, because sometimes what you see on a deed turns out not to be the case."
American Title Services is in the process of researching all the paperwork, he said.
Dull said he has some more documents to present to the company, and the search could be completed in as little as two weeks after that.
If the land is owned by the federal government, Dull said he would work with the Department of Labor to try to get a quick-claim deed, in which ownership would simply be given to the city.
From there, he said, the city could decide to either sell the land or vacate it, meaning the city would no longer own the property and neighbors could take over its maintenance.
slshaulis@vindy.com