SOLON — A Brighton Road landowner has three weeks left to remove his stone wall or else the town will do it for him.

The resident’s lawyer told selectmen they would be trespassing if they pushed back the rocks, but selectmen say the rocks are technically in the town’s right of way.

“We have that right to do that. It’s not trespassing for us to go in and take the wall out and move the stones back onto his property,” Selectman Elaine Aloes said.

Owned and built last year by Kirt Olson, the stone wall is nine feet too close to Brighton Road, making the town liable if a vehicle crashes into it and someone is injured, according to selectmen.

At a special town meeting in August, residents voted to give Olson 90 days to move the wall. The countdown ends at 4 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 9, Aloes said.

Olson maintains his rock wall is not in the town’s right of way. There used to be a row of rocks in the same area for more than 40 years, he said, so his fence is grandfathered and should stay, per state law.

“There’s many people that know there was an old stone wall there, and it wasn’t 33 feet from the center of the road,” he said. “There is no issue. They’re just trying to make one.”

He said he’s not going to be intimidated by the town. “They can do what they want, and we’ll decide what to do before the time runs out. Odds are, no, we’re not going to remove it,” he said.

Town officials say there may have been rocks in the area, but they never constituted a maintained fence. A man-made structure must be 33 feet from the center line of that road, and the wall is 24 feet away, they contend.

Aloes said she doesn’t expect Olson to be happy about the town’s actions, but “where there’s encroachment on our right of way, we can’t allow it to remain.”

A right of way allows someone to travel on property owned by another person.

After the deadline, Aloes said, the town would likely measure the right of way, mark it and use an excavator to lift the rocks up and place them behind the line. The town would supervise the move, she said, but would have to hire an excavator because the town doesn’t own one.

The town may also inform police if the time comes to move the wall. “That’s one of the things we’re considering might have to be done to protect ourselves and the property owner. That would probably be a good idea. We haven’t made the arrangements yet to do it,” Aloes said.

Olson said the town is spending too much money fighting a rock wall “that everyone likes.” He said, “It’s not cheap doing this type of stuff. That’s what really sucks is they’re wasting our hard-earned tax dollars against us.”

“If we leave it, it encroaches on the town’s right of way there, and it also sets the precedent,” Aloes responded. “You just can’t allow an encroachment on the right of way. The state doesn’t allow it. The towns can’t allow it.”

Olson said the town can’t determine where the original right of way is because officials are measuring from the center of the road. It’s possible the road has moved over time, he said.

“Clearly the survey says no original monumentation found. They don’t know where the right of way is. They don’t know where it starts and where it ends. They know where the road is. That is it,” he said.

Monumentation establishes a permanent marking of boundary lines, so people always know the location of surveyed lands.

Aloes said there’s a record of the original layout of the road at the Somerset County Registry of Deeds, and the road has not been altered since it was originally constructed.

When asked why he doesn’t move the rock wall back himself, Olson said, “Why not just leave us alone? That’s an option is it not?”

Erin Rhoda — 612-2368

[email protected]