KAUFMAN COUNTY, Texas — As a portion of a North Texas border will be disputed in a nearby district court, the homeowners who live in the area still don't know what county they live in.
There are more than 180 properties in an approximately six-mile-long path between Kaufman County and Henderson County that are currently in limbo, thanks to a land agreement made more than 100 years ago.
The stretch of land is along County Road 4044 in Kemp, southeast of Dallas.
The 1,200-foot-wide area will be taken to the Van Zandt County District Court as the nearby county judge attends to the case filed by Kaufman County's District Attorney's Office. The argument in the lawsuit revolves around which county the stretch of land belongs to.
Both counties refer to the area being taken to court as "the notch," because there is a stretch of land along the border between Kaufman County and Henderson County that pokes out from the rest of the border.
But residents who live in the notch remain uncertain about which county they call home.
Mike Webb's family has lived in Texas since the 1800s, and they've lived in the notch since the 1960s.
"This is my home," Webb said. "This is my territory."
Webb said he and his family have always paid taxes in Kaufman County and considered the notch to be Kaufman County. He said it wasn't until a couple of years ago he started to hear local leaders say that the border was a straight line.
Webb said County Road 4044 hasn't been properly cared for in decades and that it has been ignored the past few years because Kaufman County leaders are telling the property owners it's illegal for them to fix a road that is not in their county.
"The cars are just getting destroyed," Webb said. "Absolutely, it's a safety issue."
Webb said the potholes in this road are causing damage to cars driving on it and that he frequently has to move left-behind car parts off the road.
"The residents are being abandoned here, and it's becoming a dangerous situation," Webb said. "I don't think anybody's going to get thrown in jail for repairing a road that they've been maintaining."
However, Webb said he expects the long-term repairs on this road will be costly for whichever county it is decided it's a part of.
"They're going to be strapped with a huge bill to try to bring the road up to any sort of acceptable standard," Webb said. "It has to be fixed. It's dangerous."
Richards called County Road 4044 "disintegrated."
"The road was and is such a mess," Richards said. "It's not patchable at this point."
Since WFAA went out to this area, Ken Cates, who is the Kaufman County Commissioner for Precinct 4, posted on Facebook that "interim repairs" on this road had started to provide support during the "pending lawsuit." Photos were included that show some potholes being covered.
In his post, Cates also said this area is in Henderson County and that the temporary work is being done to improve the situation until "Henderson County accepts its responsibility for this area within its geographic boundaries through the lawsuit filed by the Kaufman County DA’s Office last fall."
The reason the line is drawn that way goes back to a deed filed with Kaufman County on May 13, 1891, according to Henderson County attorney Clint Davis.
There was a portion of land called the "Baker tract" that was a large portion of land with a sliver of it that was in Henderson County, owned by one property owner.
This landowner deeded Kaufman County the land that inevitably made County Road 4044, which Davis said is the road that acts as the legitimate county line between the two counties.
"In 1891, they created the notch that has been followed for the last 131 years," Davis said. "The census has followed this notch. Kaufman County is using it today in redistricting. It has been the boundary line between these counties for all purposes for the last 131 years."
RELATED: 2 North Texas counties fighting over six-mile-long border that includes nearly 200 properties
Kaufman County Judge Hal Richards has a different perspective, saying the border should be a straight line between the two counties with no notch.
Borders between Texas counties need to be determined by official state surveyors, according to Richards.
"Nobody intended for this to happen," Richards said. "It was just some unsophisticated people in the late 1800s that said we'll just make this deal and move the county line. Not being educated or sophisticated to realize that the only way that line can be changed is for the state legislature to change it."
Davis said Henderson County has maintained the same stance in wanting to stick to Texas Local Government Code Chapter 72, which is when a county court or a commissioner of the state's General Land Office appoints a registered land surveyor to make and establish boundary lines of a county border that is "not sufficiently definite."
"So Henderson County is saying to Kaufman County: We need to go in, hire the surveyors, have it surveyed and then we will agree to whatever line the survey is," Davis said.
So that process is now in the works as Van Zandt County Judge Chris Martin from the 294th District Court will act as a third party in this situation and help establish where the border is. However, there is no clear timeline as to how long this will take.
"We're in a blind box as far as knowing when it could actually come before the district court there," Richards said.
While this process is happening, though, Webb and all the rest of the homeowners from these 180 properties are left with some lingering issues beyond the road.
Webb said on multiple occasions that when he has had to call 911, he's been transferred back and forth between Kaufman County and Henderson County, both telling him he's a part of the other county and delaying a response from anyone coming out to the area.
"Calling 911 does not need to be a question," Webb said.
Webb also said issues connected to vehicle registration, insurance and other day-to-day aspects of his life have become confusing.
"There are lots of issues revolving around this that the Kaufman County Commissioner's Court did not take into account," Webb said. "They just assumed they would just stop all services and just say, 'Here Henderson County, you take this.' And it didn't work."
Richards said he also wants this issue resolved, pointing to voting as a key concern.
"They are still registered to vote in Kaufman County, but that's a big question and that's really one of the very biggest concerns that we have," Richards said. "Taxes and voting are probably the two biggest things. Those people that live there, they should be clear about where they live. It should be clear to who they're supposed to be paying their taxes to."
Webb said he has been paying his taxes in Kaufman County up to this point.
So what county would Webb prefer to live in?
"I honestly don't care," he said. "There are just a lot of issues that need to be resolved, and Kaufman County has just had a very callous attitude towards the residents in this area."