Bannock County rules in favor of landowners to keep access road private

The Bannock County commissioners faced a tough crowd Wednesday morning as they read their decision to keep the South Bell Marsh Creek Road closed-off to the public.

The decision drew a crowd of nearly 60 people from across the south end of the county, where the commissioners even had to address some serious threats made by some of the folks sitting in that room in the weeks leading to this announcement.

“We have been threatened, we have been harassed, intimidated, called names, told we were dishonest, and various other disheartening situations,” Commissioner Howard Manwaring said as he addressed the crowd.

This comes after landowners such as Brandon West closed their gates after becoming aggravated with the number of folks trespassing onto their land by using the road.

“We have had a lot of theft up there, people cutting-down wood on the property, stealing posts…and so we made the decision that we had to lock it up so we know what’s going on down there,” West said.

The road cuts through private property, so those who use that route to go hunting or for their normal commute were upset with the decision.

Civil Deputy Prosecutor Ian Service said he started a petition early this past year to validate Bell Marsh based on the 1990 resolution, but then later retracted that petition in October after realizing the county had no documentation showing it had jurisdiction over South Bell Marsh.

“All of the maps we reviewed only had three entrance points at the Marsh Creek area: one north of the creek, one right on the creek, and the south side, which is the one being disputed right now,” Service said. “We could not find maintenance records or any money ever spent on creating this road at all.”

Service and Manwaring said the county studied maps, reviewed previous commission decisions, visited with citizens and government entities, held public hearings, and even met with legal counsel along with outside road expert attorneys. Even with that extensive research, no documentation indicated the county could make that decision to open the roads for public use.

But, Service said all is not lost.

“This impacts the county as not asserting that particular route of public access. There are still Green Rd. and Walker Rd. that both reach the US Forrest Service boundary, and both within the same distance as the three miles to the top of Bell Marsh from the Forrest Service boundary,” he added.

West said he and the other landowners said their goal isn’t to completely cut-off public access.

“We are also sportsmen who use public lands all the time, and so we’re not trying to do that. We’re just trying to protect our land, do what everybody else in the county does who have private ground, and to know who is coming onto our grounds,” West said.

Commissioner Steve Hadley requested during his statement to the chambers, that these landowners put up a sign with their contact information on their gates, so anybody who wants to access that area can call and ask for permission.

“Sure thing, if you just ask I would be more than happy to work with you. I would just like someone to ask first as a common courtesy,” West added.

Service said there are still those who are upset over the decision and still want to fight for access.

He advises those who have enough evidence to show they’ve been using that area frequently over the years, to go to the courts and assert their own history of prescriptive easement.

He said, although the county doesn’t have that ability, folks in the county do, however.