Hearing held in Weyer Gulch case

WALLACE — The validation of Weyer Gulch Road continues to be petitioned as the Shoshone County Board of Commissioners (BOCC) listened to supporting and opposing positions at last Tuesday’s public hearing.

In front of a packed District Courtroom at the Shoshone County Courthouse, petitioners Ryder Gauteraux and Chuck Jones presented their evidence to the BOCC in hopes of getting the old forest road validated so a proper crossing can be installed for them to access their hundreds of acres of property on Wallace’s South Hill.

“First of all, I'm here under Idaho Code Title 40, Chapter 2, 40-203A. There has been a question as to where the location of Weyer Gulch Road is,” Gauteraux said. “I don’t believe that there is an issue whether this road is public or not, and I'll show you why. But there definitely is an issue where the road is located.”

Gauteraux had submitted stacks of paperwork that were divided up as 21 different exhibits for the BOCC and the public to view — much of his evidence was an attempt to prove that having access to Weyer Gulch Road would be in the best interests of the public and county — as it would allow access to miles and miles of old forest roads that roam throughout the hills between Wallace and Mullan, as well as allowing an access point for the county and local water district to access a valuable repeater radio tower and a water tower that are on the hill.

Gauteraux’s main argument centered on historical deeds that showed that the road in question had been public at one time, prior to it being purchased and coming under the governance of the state of Idaho.

The specific area being discussed is a section of property along the South Fork Coeur d’Alene River on Wallace’s east end, where — formerly — a section of homes had once existed prior to the construction of Interstate 90 (just south of the eastbound on-ramp).

According to testimony from Gauteraux, within these properties, which were nestled up along the South Fork and very near the former Northern Pacific Railroad, there existed both a footbridge and bridge for vehicular (referred to as the Cottage Grove Bridge) traffic that crossed the river and allowed access to the roads — including Weyer Gulch Road. However, neither of those bridges exist today.

“Weyer Gulch road comes across the South Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River and goes up through some private property,” Gauteraux said. “This was owned by the county from 1947 to 1968. It was a public road from when the railroad owned it, up until today. It was maintained going to the left to the water tower road. That has been used consistently to use and maintain the water tower. That road is still the only access to the water tower. When we went through the deeds, all the deeds said that this is a public road.”

The discussion then centered around an “at-grade crossing” that was being used by Gauteraux and Jones to access their property, but according to Lee Bernardi with the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD), the aforementioned at-grade crossing is just a low spot in the river near where the Cottage Grove Bridge once sat.

ITD owns much of the property and, reportedly, all of the access points in that particular area.

Bernardi went on to say that when ITD and the City of Wallace learned of the petitioners’ crossing the river to access their property, they were on board with the city's decision to install concrete barriers near the location to prevent Gauteraux and Jones from crossing and would’ve placed them themselves had the city not taken action.

Crossing the South Fork in any motorized vehicle is squarely on the list of things expressly forbidden by ITD, the Environmental Protection Agency, Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, and Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

The reasons being those of potential contamination for plant and animal life, as well as disturbing the river, which is still part of the Bunker Hill Superfund Project, and contains high levels of heavy metals contamination in the soils — which would be disturbed by a vehicle driving through.

ITD, the city of Wallace, Wallace Planning & Zoning, and several residents all opposed a potential validation by the BOCC, for reasons ranging from procedural, to ethical, and even personal.

The process to get a road validated is not a simple one and Shoshone County Commissioner Mike Fitzgerald has previously explained just what goes into it.

“When the roadway is not within a designated county right of way or defined within the County Roadway Inventory, the county does not impose authority nor intervene,” Fitzgerald said. “For roads not in these two categories, individuals can ask the county to make a determination of the county's interest in a road. The determination is a formal process defined in Idaho Code called ‘validation.’ If asked to validate a road, the county is then obligated under Idaho Code to make a determination of whether or not the road is a county or a non-county road.”

According to Idaho Code 40-203A, any resident or property holder within a county or highway district system, including the state of Idaho or any of its subdivisions, or any agency of the federal government, may petition the board of county or highway district commissioners, whichever shall have jurisdiction of the highway system, to initiate public proceedings to validate a highway or public right-of-way, including those which furnish public access to state and federal public lands and waters.

Gauteraux and Jones did have one person speak on their behalf during the hearing as well.

BOCC Chairman Fitzgerald, along with Commissioners Jay Huber and John Hansen admitted that with the mountain of testimony, as well as the hundreds of pages of documents that had been admitted in evidence, that they were in no position to make ruling on the validation at the end of the hearing and decided to give themselves a month to review and assess the validity of everything that they had heard during the near-two hour hearing.

Jones did take a moment to address the audience prior to the hearing’s conclusion, acknowledging the contentiousness of the entire dispute and his gratitude for everyone’s efforts in the matter.

“I just wanted to thank everyone for their time and I'm sorry that this has become such a divide,” he said. “I appreciate everyone’s time, I really do.“

The outcome of the petition will be made by the BOCC on March 29 at 11 a.m.