Most oppose abandoning roads at hearing

Ranchers and property owners expressed opposition to abandoning 29 sections of rural roads at a hearing on Monday before Washington County commissioners.
 The segments of roads scattered around the county are on a list that commissioners are looking to possibly drop from maintenance and declare them private with no public access.
 Commissioner Kirk Chandler said the county put together the list of road segments to potentially be abandoned after several landowners locked access to roads with gates.
 There also was the issue of the county maintaining what were described as private driveways that served no public access. In some cases, the county currently maintains a deadend road that goes to a single house or there is no turnaround for county equipment on the road.
 Most of the roads on the list are a half-mile or less in length. Some are described as access to one home or access to two homes and  fields.
 Commissioners took up each road segment one at a time and asked for testimony or comments on whether it should remain a public right-of-way and receive county maintenance or if it is a private road. 
 About 50 people, most of them ranchers, farmers and property owners, filled the district court courtroom in the courthouse for Monday’s hearing.
 Commissioners said they wanted to hear from landowners if there is public interest in keeping a road open to the public, such as access to BLM, Forest Service or state public lands. Does the road landlock others from access to their property?
 “Those are the things we would like to have answered,” Chandler said.
 Some said they were worried that if the road that accesses their property were declared private they might be landlocked. In some cases, one property owner might need to secure an easement from another to use a private road for access.
 There are state laws that address how roads are abandoned and under what circumstances. Commissioners took no action on the list of 29 road segments on Monday and said there was more research to be done before they decide if a road is public or private.
 County Prosecuting Attorney Delton Walker said nothing changes with regard to the rights-of-way or easements if a road is abandoned. The county will just not provide any maintenance on it. Landowners will bear the cost of upkeep.
 Royce Schwenkfelder said one road segment on the list to be potentially abandoned has been used for more than a century for driving cattle, hay trucks and farm use.
 “There is a lot of commerce that goes on these county roads,” he said.
 Another Midvale-area resident said ranchers pay a lot of property taxes and the county now wants to take away services by abandoning roads and ending all maintenance.
 “That doesn’t sit with me very good,” he said.
 Chandler raised the fairness issue, saying there are a lot of property owners in the county who pay taxes and do not get their road or driveway maintained.
 Lawerence Denney, a landowner near Midvale and Idaho’s secretary of state, said the portion of Denney Road on the list of possible roads to be abandoned should stay public.
 He said there are three families living on the road with kids in school. The road is also used by a ditch company to maintain Beaver Creek. If the county abandoned road segments, that could decrease the value of property.
 “It is, in my opinion, a county road.”