A storage container sits on Randy Stevens’ property in Saratoga. A recent court order is enforcing an agreement written by the town to remove the storage container so it can move forward with work on an alleyway. The court order did not mandate the removal of the retaining wall.
Carbon County District Court Judge Wade Waldrip reprimanded the town of Saratoga and Randy Stevens at the end of a court hearing aimed to settle an agreement between both parties.
“I am embarrassed by the conduct of (both parties), and there is plenty of embarrassment to go around,” Waldrip said in his reprimand during the May 8 court hearing Stevens Vs. the Town of Saratoga. “You people must really love to pay your lawyers and you are acting like school children.”
Stevens and the town of Saratoga have been locked in a legal battle since 2009 concerning two pieces of property adjacent to each other. Stevens has tried to level his property against major discrepancies with the adjacent property. Stevens said he just “wants to have full use of his property.”
Prior to the May 8 court hearing, Stevens and the town allegedly made a verbal agreement on how to handle the multiple issues with both properties, only the town and Stevens did not agree on the agreement.
Although Waldrip did not immediately make a ruling in court, the Carbon County District Court ultimately ruled in favor of enforcing the town’s version of the agreement.
“The only reasonable interoperation of this agreement is that set forth by the town,” the court order stated. Stevens and the town allegedly had two different written versions of an agreement that somewhat conflicted. Both agreements aimed to remove a storage container from Stevens’ property. Both agreements also mentioned restoring an alleyway near the properties. Only Stevens’ version of the agreement mentions the town’s involvement in removing a sheer piling retaining wall, multiple lot surveys and segregating the topsoil from the fill dirt.
During court, the town maintained that it never agreed to removing the sheer piling retaining wall, surveying land or segregating the topsoil from the fill dirt.
Arguments in the May 8 hearing focused on the retaining wall, namely Stevens’ argument that the town agreed to remove the retaining wall.
The court order stated the town did agree to use a different type of retaining wall than what is in place right now, but the court found the sheer piling retaining wall was a reasonable substitute.
The agreement now being enforced by the court states the town od Saratoga must construct a ramp in order to remove a storage container on Stevens’ property, and later return it. The order also states the town must “in good faith use its best efforts to complete reconstruction of the alleyway,” according to the court order.
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