YORKTOWN, Ind. (WTHR) – The city of Yorktown is hoping to break ground later this year on a new downtown development.
The only problem is they city needs to acquire several homes to make this happen.
Many of those homes are along canal street where some residents have resided for 20 to 50 years and they are not wanting to leave, which has the city threatening eminent domain.
Canal Street in Yorktown is kind of a quiet street with old houses that many people have called home for years.
People like Ruby, Jerry and Janice but it's Jerry's story that captured our attention.
Jerry and Sharon Puckett bought their dream home 53 years ago. Two years after they were married.
"It's home. It's just what we wanted and we want to be here until we're gone," Sharon Puckett told us in the living room of her home.
"It's been a neighborhood since 1837. Almost 200 years. Yorktown is going to die because we all get along and have a great neighborhood. I don't think so," neighbor Bruce McFarland added.
He lives just up the street. His home is designated for the second phase of a new project.
The city of Yorktown wants to bulldoze the small neighborhood and remake it into a new downtown area along the canal.
"They said they had the right to do that which they do have. So fighting an uphill battle," homeowner Jerry Puckett said.
Initially he was told he needed to be out last August.
"They told me I had to be out in August so I signed a lease for $6,000 at $1,000 a month. Then I found out I didn't have to move right then so I lost $6,000 on that deal," so now he has hired an attorney. It's not just Jerry and Sharon.
There is Sharon's blind sister Ruby who they help take care of. She lives next door. The city wants her house too.
They made their dream houses into their forever homes. It's worth much more than the city is offering at least to them.
"For $146,000 you can't come close to getting a place like this. Not even close," Jerry Puckett admitted.
Supporters have collected over a hundred thousand signatures opposing the use of eminent domain.
"The law is on their side so you don't even own your home. They can take your home. Land of the free," he said shaking his head.
Those signatures are scheduled to be delivered to Yorktown city hall tomorrow night at 5:30.
Yorktown town manager Pete Olson told Eyewitness News in a prior story that he didn't enjoy the position the city is in but if we're going to do something then you have to make the first step.