WINNEMUCCA - County officials, including both the Regional Planning Commission and Humboldt County commissioners, have struggled with trying to find ways to help rural county residents with access issues, and to warn potential buyers of rural property that county government lacks the authority to solve most legal access issues.
Again last month, a request was brought before the commissioners for help with the road condition of the only access a couple has to their property. The couple purchased property and placed their home on a lot where access issues were never properly addressed, nor roads developed.
This last situation involved a request from an individual, Fred Anderson, who was trying to help his neighbors, who have difficulty traveling a roadway that is bad at best and impassable in winter months.
Anderson said he was concerned for the health of his neighbor, who has been diagnosed with lung cancer, and also about the ability of emergency medical services to reach her.
Anderson sent the commissioners a letter offering to smooth out ruts caused by storms and put some roadbase gravel on the worst section of road in an effort to make the passage easier and stabilize the road. The length of the proposed improvements would be a little over 1,100 feet.
He said he has has not been able to get approval to do any road work from the BLM, which manages the land the road is on and owns the right of way.
He wondered whether there was anything the commissioners could do to intervene or assist with getting BLM approval.
The commissioners were told Anderson was just trying to come up with an intermediate solution to the problem through the winter months while the access issues could be worked out.
Commission Chairman Jim French was sympathetic to the request, saying, "This is someone trying to be a good neighbor, trying to help out a family, but this isn't something the county really has jurisdiction over."
French related that the last thing Anderson said to him on the phone was "I don't want to go to jail for trying to help out my neighbor."
Anderson even made the offer that "if there was any heartburn" over him putting the roadbase down, if it was determined in the future the road wasn't wanted there any more, he would take up the gravel he'd put on the road at his own expense. However, that didn't solve the problem.
Melanie Mirati, who is the BLM assistant field manager in charge of Cultural, Lands and Recreation for the Winnemucca BLM District field office, was present at the county commission meeting, along with BLM realty specialist Julie McKinnon.
They explained what is involved. Grading the roadway and placing gravel road base would constitute "surface disturbance," which kicks in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), requiring that an environmental and cultural assessment be completed on the area in question before surface disturbance is permitted.
She expressed her concern for the people involved, but noted that local BLM officials do not have the authority to circumvent NEPA requirements.
Mirati said even when the BLM needs to do something with the roads on public lands they are required to go through all the same NEPA procedures as any private person or governmental entity.
French inquired whether there was anything the county could do to speed up the process, such as apply for the right of way?
County Road Foreman Ben Garrett, who had discussed that very question with the BLM, said it wouldn't make any difference whether the county requested the access or the property owners requested it. The NEPA requirement is in force and the procedures and regulations have to be followed.
Anderson's letter to the commission claimed that the individual who developed the property never got the proper right of way approvals from the BLM before selling the lots. BLM representatives said the original owner made the intent to apply for a right of way but didn't follow through, apparently determining that the cost for the application and associated studies required would be cost-prohibitive.
The BLM officials said they would check further to see if anything could be done to expedite the process and get permission for improvement of the roadway by a private person but didn't promise they would be able to.
County Administrator Bill Deist commented said that "this is a classic example of something we've wrestled with time and time again and it's one of the reasons that we have on the jurats (a legal warning on a parcel map) that we don't guarantee access. People go out and buy this ground without checking on access."
He said that, "although I feel sorry for these folks and their situation, there may not be much we can do to help them."
Commissioner Dan Cassinelli noted that the jurats were put in place years ago as a warning "to say that we knew Humboldt County would not have the authority to take care of road access issues."
He added, "Years ago, when these kinds of parcel divisions were going in, we knew there were areas where these types of situations would come up, and this won't be the last time - there are other areas out Jungo Road and other rural pieces of property in the county with access issues."
The Humboldt Regional Planning Commission has been working to draw attention the "Code of the West" document on the county website and make it easier to read and understand in an effort to attract more people to read it and understand their personal responsibility to assure property they are considering buying has legal access and that the roads are passable.
That document clearly points out that emergency response time may be slow, expensive or nonexistent, that access can run into challenges, especially if access to the property goes across property belonging to others, or across public land managed by the BLM. It points out that potential buyers will have issues with maintenance and cost of maintenance of roads outside the county-maintained road system.
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