Town Of Silver City
Uses private property for public purpose illegally

In April after learning that private property in the State of New Mexico can not be used for a public purpose according the the State of New Mexico Constitution Article II, Section 20, I started making inquiries into our final plat at the County Clerks office. Why you ask? Rains are constantly flooding our property because the Town of Silver City installed a culvert and road level drainage that empties onto our property without our permission in 1986.

I was instructed to contact the Town's Engineer (Peter Pena) and after contacting him we made arrangements for him to look at the property. He came to our property and agreed that something should be done to stop the flooding that we get because of the drainage directed onto our property and made acouple of suggestions. He stated that he needed a couple of months to work things out and would get back to me.

After a couple of months passed I attempted to contact Mr. Pena only to find him either unavailiable or out of the office. 15 months later I finally caught up with Mr. Pena and he was hostile, rude, and exagerated what he would have to do. I informed him that I would bulid a retaining wall to keep the water off my property and he replied that I would be setting myself up for legal action by my neighbors. I replied that the US and NM Constitutions say otherwise. I also replied that I had discussed my plans with my nieghbors and they agreed with me because of the damage that is occuring to our home by subsistance.

That same day I made an attempt to talk to the Town Manager, (ALEX Brown) he also was rude, agravated, and wanted everything in writting. He actually turned his back on me and walked away. So I put in an application to go before the Town Council. The meeting was to be held July 27. I checked in on July 26 as I had been out of town prior. I found that I was not on the agenda for the meeting and when I inquired as to why, all I received for an answer was "You did not answer your phone." When I put in the application I stated I would be out of town until the day before the meeting. I could not get any other reason as to why I was not allowed to be placed on the agenda.

I have made two different attempts to talk to the Mayor, but he is always unavailiable.

On Aug. 30 I attempted to issue a bill for the use of our property (the constitution calls it "Just Compensation") of $100.00 per month starting when I first made contact in April. I say attempted because there was nobody in the City Goverment working that day in the mid-afternoon. So I hand delivered the bill and letter of explaination to the Town Attorney with the hopes he could get it to someone in the Town Government.

It is now Sept. 30 and I have not heard a word from The Town of Silver City. They have chosen to ignore the communication attempts and the problem.in April I was willing to work with the Town, but now they have abused my property and my rights to a point that I must take other actions. I am going to report the debt the Town owes for using my property to the credit agencies, newspapers, television, and congressional representatives.

I am web master the www.propertyrightsresearch.org website and I have my ducks lined up for a fight. It really is not about the money, but we can't even plant a garden in our own backyard, our house is sinking in the middle from subsistance, and our plight is just flat out being ingored by town government and its inactions. I plan to get the Paragon Foundation involved to help me with this fight before we lose our home.

I have already started to block off the culvert but recent rains have slowed me down on that. I am buliding a retaining wall as I said I would slowly but surely as I am disabled and the work is physical.

I will be writting my Congressional Representatives and informing them of the abuses The Town of Silver City imposes on us at least. I am sure we are not the opnly ones being used this way as my neighbors have informed me that the Town of Silver City conducted an investigation interviewing my nieghbors and taking pictures of our property without informing us. Why was the Town taking pictures of our home and property? My neighbors said the Town official was asking if our backyard floods. Fortunately all my nieghbors were consistant in their replies as they answered that it floods badly.

I have copies of the final plats for our property so if the Town tries to tamper with them I can get them in court. Our home is paid for so the City can not place liens on the property. There are no "water-right-of-way" or "easements" on our property at all. We will fight any attempt at making any also. We even tried to get the County Tax Assesor to reasses our property for its use for water drainage which they refused to do. We would have accepted a property tax deduction for the use of our property for water drainage.

Recently the Town reworked the northwest area of our street that stopped flooding on other properties that now sends even more storm water to us than ever before. I am refering to North Combs Street in Silver City in case anyone wants to know.

So here we are dealing with more corupt government in The Town of Silver City as another person placed here says on usacomplaints.com.

Remeber that according to the New Mexico Consitution "Private Property is not to be used for a Public Purpose."

I'll keep you updated as time goes by.

Company: Town Of Silver City
Country: USA
State: New Mexico
City: Silver City
Address: 101 Broadway
Phone: 5055383731

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