By Patricia A. Scheyer
NKyTribune reporter
Last October the city of Florence first discussed a name change for Cardinal Drive in the city. At the time, the city was waiting on agreements with residents who live on Cardinal Drive.
With the state restricting cross traffic access to the street on which Tom Gill Chevrolet is located, the business petitioned the city to change the name of Cardinal Drive to Tom Gill Way, so Gill could advertise how to access his business.
The city read the ordinance affirming the name change twice, in late March and the middle of April, and announced that they had checked with residents of Cardinal Way and that everyone agreed to the street name being changed to Tom Gill Way.
Apparently not everyone got the message.
Michael Tomlin lives at 3 Cardinal Drive and he owns two businesses, Michael W. Tomlin MBA, which is accounting and advertising, and Barebones Builders, LLC. His wife, Marilyn Tomlin, owns Kurious Kottage, LLC, all located at 3 Cardinal Way.
“I opened my water bill last Thursday and found out that our address for our home has been changed without us being notified,” Tomlin said. “And we still have not been notified! It will cost me a half million dollars to change everything, as well as the cost of a lawyer. All because Tom Gill wants it for his marketing plan for his car lot. We can’t have this happen, where the city is in bed with the rich and wealthy.”
However, Tomlin is not the registered owner of the property.
“The recorded owner of the property is Howard Joseph Gangloff, who has signed an agreement affirming his support for the road name change,” said Florence City Administrator Joshua Hunt. “It’s important to highlight that Mr. Tomlin adamantly claimed Mr. Gangloff, the true owner of the property, was never notified about the road name change. However, this assertion is inaccurate. Mr. Gangloff and his attorney have indeed endorsed the road name change via a written agreement. Additionally, I have once again checked the courthouse records, and there is no deed or legal conveyance declaring Mr. Tomlin as the owner of 3 Cardinal Drive.”
When Hunt informed Tomlin about the agreement, Tomlin called Gangloff, who apologized to him and said he would try and rescind his agreement. Tomlin said he has a legal land contract with Gangloff, along with the title, that should allow him to be the homeowner, not a tenant.
Tomlin and his wife have been in the property since 2013. They are both Army Veterans. He said the word ‘tenant’ is similar to ‘peasant’ to some people, but it doesn’t excuse anyone from violating his rights under the 14th amendment.
Hunt explained that when a street name change is being considered, they contact all the registered homeowners on the street and see if they are amenable to the change.
Since there are only two houses on that part of Cardinal, the city contacted the owners and acquired signed agreements. The people at 1 Cardinal Drive rent that house, and their landlord did not inform them about the street name change either. But the city is not responsible for the landlords’ failure to inform their tenants.
Hunt has a possible solution to this imbroglio.
“Considering the property has legal access to the remaining portion of Cardinal Drive, I can facilitate a request to switch the address back to 3 Cardinal Drive, which should address Mr. Tomlin’s concerns,” Hunt explained.
“However, it’s essential to note that since there’s a legally binding agreement in place with Mr. Gangloff, his consent will be necessary to revert the name back to Cardinal Drive. I recommend that Mr. Tomlin contact Mr. Gangloff at his earliest convenience to address the fact that, as the recorded property owner, he has signed an agreement approving the name change and inquire why he was not notified. After that, we can schedule a call between the attorneys to facilitate the next steps. This will ensure that all parties are aligned and any necessary legal procedures are followed.”
Tomlin has plans to come to the Tuesday night city council meeting. He does seem somewhat mollified by possible plans to restore his address and will work with the city to see if this plan can happen.