On Fri, 19 Dec 2008 21:28:18 +0000 (UTC), "SteveBell"
wrote:


Who owns the land in question?

The city owns the land. The existing two-lane road was originally a
farm road, but there's room set aside for a median and more lanes on
our side. That's the part Mike's maintaining.

Does the city not mow rights-of-way?

They do, but only a few times a year.

I would be very cool to any agreement to do anything to land that I
did not own. If Mike mows for a few more years, mebbe he will own
it? Any agreement/contract to do anything can lead to lawyers. I
certainly would not plant anything......the day someone hits a gas
line or a cable will be the day appreciation is forgotten.

That's a good point. I don't mind if I plant some bushes and lose the
money and effort,

This is you, and can't be transferred to every HOA situation... never
mind, you are the OP.

Anyhow, I was also going to say that when I lived in suburban
INdianapolois, we also also lived an a main but two-lane road and the
county owned 10 or 15 feet on our side of the road to be used for
widening it.

About half of the neighbors put their bushes in on their own land, so
they wouldn't be cut down later. (It also meant when they backed out
of the driveway, they could see if anyone was coming. Every driveway
had a "turnaround" but I don't think anyone used them.)

And half put the bushes in a foot from the road, on public land. We
bought the house used and the bushes were already close to the road.

I was back there a year ago, 51 years after we had bought the house,
and they still haven't widened the road!! There are more houses, but
the increased traffic is almost entirely on the main road, a half mile
to the east.

but I'd hate to have to pay the cable company to
repair a cut line. I cut my own cable once, long ago, and they charged
almost $100 for a simple splice. Luckily I now know how to do
waterproof splices. ;-)

My next door neighbor hired some guy who used the wrong tool and cut
my phone line. He was going to do some shlock repair, but I did a
good job. The neighbor himself said he woudl pay for the repair and
I called the phone company and the repair was free, but it seemed they
weren't going to do as good a job as I did. I soldered the wires and
they were just going to use some jellied crimp connectors. I taped
the connection with silicon tape and they were just going to use vinyl
electric tape.

--
Steve Bell