WINONA LAKE - It wasn't an epic battle of the lions and Christians in the Coliseum, but it was the battle of the Lions, the town and the LeMasters Tuesday night at the Winona Lake Town Council meeting.

At issue was who owns the property on which the Winona Lake Lions Club building is located, where West Canal and Esplanade streets meet on the island, and if the building is legally there to begin with.

Torrey Bauer, attorney for Jim and Lisa Lemasters, told the board the decision before them was rather straightforward: vacate the right-of-way over the LeMasters' property and let his clients and the service organization negotiate a settlement, or leave the right-of-way in place and require the Lions' building to be demolished or be made a public building.

"Either way you decide, you can't allow it to stay the Lion's Club building," Bauer said. "The state law is clear that a private building cannot exist on public property."

Paul Jenkins, representing the Winona Lake Lions, said the building has been used as a public building for years and that it will continue to be used as such, if allowed to remain at its present location.

"We've been there for 40-plus years," Jenkins said. "That building is not a private building for private use. Other nonprofit organizations meet there free of charge. With what we do for the community, we think we deserve the right to remain there."

He added that until the LeMasters filed their petition to vacate the right-of-way and the public hearing announcement appeared in the Times-Union, they had not been approached about the LeMasters' desire for the property, nor that the building was on a public right-of-way. In fact, he added, the Lions believed there was a 99-year lease on the property.

Town Council President Brent Wilcoxson said the council's attorney, Jim Walmer, investigated the history, through town council meeting in 1958 and 1959, when the building was constructed, and that no lease was ever granted on the property for the building.

"In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Lion's Club came to the town council requesting a lease on the property to build the building," Wilcoxson said. "The lease wasn't entered into because it was a public right-of-way and it is illegal to build a private building on a public right-of-way."

The illegal situation was discovered by the LeMasters when they did a title search to determine who owned the property so they could make an offer to purchase it, Wilcoxson added.

Walmer disputed Bauers' assertion that the council had to vacate the right-of-way or require the Lions Club building razed. The situation could be left to remain as it has been to this point, he said.

"While you make a good argument for your clients, the town does have the right to do nothing and leave it as it as been," Walmers told Bauer.

That is what the council ultimately decided, voting 4-1 to deny the vacation petition. Only Wilcoxson voted against the denial.

According to Bauer, his clients' next step would be to file for quiet title to the property and require the Lion's Club to vacate the building. Legal action against the town to force the vacation of the right-of-way is another possibility - one that LeMasters intimated as he left the meeting.

"I'll see you in court," he said as he departed the meeting room.

In other business, the council set the 1999 tax rate at $2.71 per $100 of assessed value. That represents a 6 percent increase over the 1998 tax rate of $2.55 per $100 of assessed value. [[In-content Ad]]