Last night we told you about a dispute between Galena resident, Royce Cantrell, and the city of Galena. Cantrell lives on Wood Street. The road runs north and south but on the north end, Wood Street is now closed and Cantrell claims he has a hard time accessing his property because of it. Action 12's Dustin Lattimer tells us why Royce Cantrell decided to sue the city of Galena and why the city leaders say, they're not budging when it comes to opening up the north end of Wood Street.

"It was a bad situation that I inherited when I came in and honestly there really wasn't a good, easy resolution to it," says Galena Mayor, Dale Oglesby. The situation was several years in the making. Royce Cantrell says he wants access to his property through Wood Street. Currently, the asphalt on Wood Street ends several hundred feet before reaching Cantrell's property. But according to city road maps and survey markers, Wood Street should extend into Cantrell's property. "It's a city street, we want to drive down it and we don't want to hear any grief about it," says Wood Street resident, Royce Cantrell. "There's two other ways he can get to his property but he feels like the other ways are less convenient, I understand what he's saying," says Mayor Oglesby. "They initially tried to say, "Well there's a gravel path to the east of the platted Wood Street, you can use that," which none of those are viable options, it's isn't logical, it isn't reasonable," says Cantrell.

To make the north end of Wood Street accessible, Cantrell has proposed several solutions to the city, none of which won over council members or the mayor. "One person in the city can't come up and demand that you build a road here or build a road there, this is an entire community that we're responsible for so we have to do what's best for the community," says Mayor Oglesby. "They've left us with no other option but to file a lawsuit," says Cantrell. Not just one, but two lawsuits. Both suits are against the city of Galena. The first lawsuit is asking the district court to determine the reasonableness of the city's actions to vacate the north end of Wood Street. The second suit is for alleged damages inflicted on the Cantrell's. "There has been so much stress placed on our family because of this," says Royce Cantrell's wife, JoAnn Cantrell. "I would like it if the Cantrell family and the city leaders of the city of Galena can mend the fences and go about life," says Royce Cantrell. "It's way to late for that, the city had been sued and he's (Mr. Cantrell) is looking for damages and all sorts of stuff," says Mayor Oglesby.

Now the neighbors are getting involved because they claim Cantrell is tearing up part of the plated Wood Street, digging around a concrete slab that acted as the foundation for a previous building. The concrete slab lies in the middle of the plated street. "The city officials came down and posted the dead end signs here because Royce Cantrell had dug on the north side of the slab there about four to five foot deep and caused a hazard," says Wood Street resident, Joey Upton. "I've had too many eye-witnesses that watched him dig the hole," says Mayor Oglesby. Cantrell claims the drop off on the back side of the slab was there when the building was removed from the concrete foundation. "There has been a drop-off there for quite some time and anytime it rains or anything else it will continue to spill off and spoil off from underneath there and the adjacent areas too," says Royce Cantrell.

It's now up to a judge to find the city's reason or reasons for vacating the north end of Wood Street, preventing the Cantrell's from accessing their property through the public road. "It's even been said, "Why would we bother, it only goes to your property," it doesn't only go to our property, there's other property back there, but yeah, mostly it's our property, so yeah mostly, it's our problem," says JoAnn Cantrell.