The home base for a family in rural Minnesota has disappeared, leaving them to wonder about simple things like mail -- and whether it will be delivered --and if the school bus will stop for their three kids. Earlier this month, Hillman Township supervisors informed the family that, in their view, the road they live on no longer existed.
Now, the gravel road that Renee and Andy Crisman drive every day to and from their front door has officially been wiped off the map.
Most importantly, the family is asking if somehow they could be blocked from getting to their home by the neighbor who now controls the only access to their property. The neighbor in question has also made it clear he doesn't like the Crismans.
"People very much have the attitude that, 'You're from the Cities. You didn't grow up here. You don't belong,' "Renee Crisman said to the Star Tribune. "How dare you come up here and think you should have your road maintained that you pay taxes for?"
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The Crismans are not from the township, leading many to disagree with their call for help.
"They have a thing that they're way better and smarter than everybody else," Danny Schmoll said. Schmoll is a former township supervisor who, with his mother, is the owner of the land that the now-former road runs across, connecting the Crismans' 120-acre property.
Schmoll admitted that he had given thought to barricade the Crisman's property.
"Supposedly, I could shut that road down now," said Schmoll. "I have no intention of doing that. Their little girls have to get to the school bus. But if I could close that down for Andy and Renee, I would."
Renee Crisman sees the battle as a matter of principle.
"They don't want us to have access to our own home," she said. "We thought, 'Are we going to fight this, or are we going to sit back and let them do this?' "
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Andy and Renee Crisman bought their property at the end of Hornet Street in 2013 and moved there from Shoreview in 2017, living in a small cabin at first before building a new home.
The road runs off County Rd. 3, not far from Knife Lake, and was laid out as a township road in 1904. Many different people have owned their property over the years, but mainly by the Schmoll family.
While their property was unoccupied for some time, the Township only plowed and maintained to the Schmoll place, but in 2017 the Crismans went to a township meeting asking the rest of it to be maintained.
According to the Crismans and Ryan Martens, the township board chair, those present at the meeting resoundingly refused. The township thought that fixing the road would be too expensive, so the Crismans fixed it themselves for over two years, spending tens of thousands of dollars.
The township refused to plow their road even after the maintenance, so the Crismans did it themselves until the township refused to let them do it either. This left the Crismans asking, why would the township let them build their house on a road it didn't mean to maintain?
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The Crismans sued the township in Kanabec County District Court, asking that the road be declared a road within the township, requiring it to maintain it. However, the ruling handed down in June favored the township.
The township is offering a different option now that the Crismans have lost their legal access to their home.
Earlier this summer, a different gravel road was extended on the far side of the Crisman land. The township told the family they could get access to their home on that road if they build a 600-foot driveway, at their own expense, through pasture land with a swampy spot in its middle, the Tribune reported.
Renee Crisman shared that it would cost thousands of dollars, maybe tens of thousands.
"We selected this option to help the Crismans, so if the township lost interest [in Hornet Street] from the 40-year law, the Crismans would have legal access to their property," Martens, the board chairman, said in an email to the Tribune
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The Crismans are currently having the case re-examine and amended by the judge. New information may change the decision, but the request is still pending.
In the meantime, they will continue living with neighbors who, they acknowledged, don't like them and probably never will.
"We're not being treated fairly," Andy Crisman said. "The spite train has left the station, and here we are."
"Pretty much everybody has had enough of them now," said Schmoll. "I don't expect that they'll ever find a friendly face in Hillman Township ever again."