Regarding your Oct. 4 article regarding the road closure on Lookout Mountain, I want to make the following comments clear. The Forsea River Ranch LLC never received any of the $125,000 paid by the county. The county spent that amount, plus lawyer fees, which was taxpayer monies. Those monies could have been used for much better purposes within the county. It has never been published as to how much taxpayer monies were spent on this issue.

There was already access to public ground up from Conner Creek that had been used in case of fire. Harvey lied to cover his butt on making such a statement on the need for more access. Nichols must have been asleep when it was an offer on the table to leave the Loop Road open if Todd Longgood could keep Conner Creek road locked. He’s also trying to cover his butt.

Hunters and visitors already had access to the public lands. Harvey only wanted the road open from point A to point B (Conner Creek to Daly Creek Road) and wouldn’t listen to anything else.

In the meantime, I have put in three more locked gates on my private roads, and at this point by permission only I have given access to hunters by walking only. No vehicles or ATVs. If we have problems with hunters, I may have to close our land altogether. Hunters should realize it is a privilege to hunt on private ground and land should be respected.

Keeping the Loop Road open makes more sense because it’s a better road and less maintenance. You would think that our public officials would try to use more common sense in making decisions using taxpayer monies wastefully and instead using it where it does the most good for the most people.

Dan Forsea

Richland