Crestview nixes offer to settle alley dispute

CRESTVIEW — The City Council will not pursue an offer to settle a dispute over ownership of an alley downtown. However, family members who claim the property is theirs say a nearly yearlong battle doesn’t end there.

The disputed alley behind Florida A&M University’s Pharmacy School serves Main Street businesses in buildings once owned by the late Purl G. Adams. His daughter-in-law, Barbara, and his grandson, Purl Adams III, claim the alley is part of their property.

“I’m not gonna stop just at their decision,” Purl Adams III said of the City Council’s vote last week. “I’m not saying we’re going to court. I’m saying that there’s other avenues to pursue.”

The city had proposed paying $55,000 to Barbara Adams to ensure the city’s access and ownership of the alley. However, council members changed course after reviewing a Nov. 18, 1942, warranty deed during a 5-minute recess at last week’s meeting.

Purl G. Adams, his wife Edna and W.R. Taylor deeded the alley to the city for $10 and a promise that the property would remain a public alley. For council members, that was enough evidence to nix the settlement.

“I’m holding an official document on file with the city clerk’s office … it says this city owns that property,” Council President Robyn Helt said at the meeting. 

“Based on what I am holding in my hand, I say fight it. If we lose, we lose,” Councilman Shannon Hayes said.

Councilman Thomas Gordon also voted down the settlement. Council members Mickey Rytman and Joe Blocker dissented.

Purl Adams said he didn’t hear about the council’s reversal and didn’t know city leaders had planned to discuss the alley dispute until the afternoon after the meeting.

After learning a June 21 executive session on the matter was canceled, attorney Jill Crew, who represents Barbara Adams, emailed Crestview attorney Jerry Miller requesting the next date that the council would consider the issue.

Crew did not get a response, Purl said.

When contacted last week, Miller offered no comment

The City Council’s June 24 meeting agenda, released four days beforehand, included the alley item.

“I am very disappointed in the city of Crestview’s actions,” Purl Adams said in a statement. “I would like to believe that, just maybe, the past and present council members do not or did not know the story concerning the alleyway, or the behind-the-scenes happenings, or just possibly everyone has been kept in the dark about the situation.”

The full story, he said, includes the 1942 provision that the “strip of land shall be, remain and forever used as an alley of, for and in the said town for the free use and benefit to the public and said town, as other alleys are so used.”

The city didn’t use the alley for its intended purpose, so the deed is abandoned under state law, Crew has contended.

Then there’s the Adamses’ 1944 deed that includes the alley, which “trumps the 1942 deed,” Purl Adams said.

Then there’s the mortgage that Barbara Adams took out on the property in 1996, and an estimated 70 years of property taxes the family has paid on the alley, as county records show.

Additionally, city engineer Fred Cook referred to the property in an Aug. 2, 2011, memo concerning FAMU’s water service.

“The area along the east (northeast) side of the building is not a publicly owned alley — it is private property,” he said.

Helt and Hayes did not return phone calls after the meeting regarding the issue. Gordon and City Clerk Betsy Roy offered no comment because of potential litigation.

Miller previously has said the city knows about the Adamses’ “and will heartily defend the city’s title.”

Meanwhile, Purl Adams said the battle has cost his family about $30,000 in legal fees and has taken a toll on his 75-year-old mother.

“When all this first started, all my mom asked for from the architect and FAMU was the payoff for her mortgage so she could deed the alleyway to whoever and make all of this go away. The mortgage was around $25,000,” he said. “The city decided to file a suit, causing mental stress on my mother, an elderly widow … not to mention the added stress of having to retain an attorney …

“I really think that the council should take control, use some common sense, and let’s resolve this issue once and for all. It has been simple all along.”