County should drop effort to open gates on road

Do I think the Lookout Mountain road is a RS 2477 county road? No. I believe the lower 4 to 5 miles of road up Connor Creek is a county road. The county did not give written notice in 2002 to the Forseas and Humphreys (previous landowners) that the county was claiming that the road, a RS 2477 road, giving the county claim to the road through private property. I believe that if it wasn’t for Forseas and Humphreys logging in the 1960s, ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, building the road on their own private property, there wouldn’t be a road. I believe the county claiming the road as a RS 2477 road is a government taking of private property.

Bill Harvey, county commissioner, said to the present landowner that it was OK to put a locked gate across the road if the owner would leave the high Lookout Mountain road open, but after a few months Harvey changed his mind. He said the owner had to unlock the gate for public access to the Connor Creek road and Forsea property. There is already access to the Forsea property up Connor Creek. There is no need to come in through the locked gates. What good is Harvey’s word?

I am one of the owners of the Forsea property and I believe the county is wrong in pursuing this RS 2477 road. The county should have better use of their time and taxpayer money. Making use of that money on the roads they already have. There’s already plenty of access for fire control and hunting on the Forsea property and BLM. BLM has an easement through the locked gates in case of fire.

I personally like the gates locked. It has cut down on traffic and the road is staying in better shape. If the county finally gets the owner to unlock those gates and the roads get tore up, I may stop allowing hunting on the Forsea property. I’m not too sure the county would be very popular with hunters if this happens.

The county should drop this and move on to more productive things.

Dan Forsea

Richland