RATHDRUM - Several longtime property owners along a Rathdrum thoroughfare are objecting to highway construction they believe is encroaching on their land.

"Nobody came and talked to us and said, 'This is what's going to happen,'" said John Daum, one of a handful who owns homes and businesses along Old Highway 95.

Crews showed up several days back to insert stakes in the ground, Daum said, marking for the transformation of the old highway into a frontage road.

He was surprised when the markers were hammered in past the two-lane road, past the power lines beside it and roughly 20 feet into his property.

"Or what I think is my property," Daum said. "Now they're saying this is what they're putting the road through."

He and several other property owners have approached Lakes Highway District this week about the stakes showing up behind their fences and by their driveways.

The district's response surprised them: That section of land isn't theirs.

District Engineer Eric Shanley explained that three separate surveys, the most recent conducted in the last week, have confirmed the road's right of way is 80 feet, extending to the frontage area many considered the edge of their lawns.

Commissioner Marv Lekstrum said folks were likely confused because the road sits in the middle of the right of way, not at the edge.

"They thought all that land west of the telephone poles was theirs. That's what caused the problem," Lekstrum said.

The right of way was carefully verified for the project, Shanley added, which will widen and upgrade about three miles of the road between Highway 53 and Chilco Road.

"This issue isn't unique to Lakes Highway District," Shanley said. "The reason we have professional land surveyors providing right of way limits is to clearly define the public right of way, to ensure we don't encroach into private properties."

But Daum still believes he is in the right. In his roughly 18 years of owning the land, he said he has never been given this version of his property line.

"If that's the case, have I been paying property taxes on this ground I don't own?" he said.

He is still discussing the issue with his neighbors, he added.

"If we decide we have a right to this, I'm sure we'll hire a lawyer and try to get it through litigation," Daum said.

Chris Mesenbrink, who owns a wood treatment business by the road, said he only feels more confused after hearing the district's explanation.

His property line has never been disputed in his 10 years of ownership, he said.

He worries the highway's construction could affect the slope of his property, Mesenbrink added, making it difficult for trucks to back out.

"What's caused this bit of uproar is their (the district's) lack of meetings, their lack of explaining to property owners what exactly was going to happen until it started to happen," Mesenbrink said.

He plans to obtain a legal description of his property to confirm the right of way, he said.

Although he questions the need for the project at all, he said, he is dubious about joining in on a lawsuit.

"It would have to be on an absolutely solid basis," he said.

Lois Pokorny said her husband had never been told their property line was as short as the district has indicated, though he has lived by Old Highway 95 nearly 40 years.

But they believe the surveys the highway district has referenced are valid, Pokorny said. They're getting over their frustration about not being forewarned.

"We're getting over that hump," she said. "I think it (the project) is necessary."

Shanley said the district has a goal of improving public notification.

But Lekstrum said it's on property owners to know the true right of way.

"It's been that way forever," Lekstrum said of the road limit. "I didn't think it was on the highway department to tell them exactly where the edge of their property was."