By Michael Howell
An attorney working for Ron and Lori Capp, owners of the Fort Owen Ranch, has written a letter to the Town of Stevensville claiming that the town is violating the scope of the easement that was granted across the Capps’ property providing access to the Town’s wastewater treatment plant by allowing the general public to access the property to dispose of lawn clippings and limbs.
“The easement was intended to provide the Town of Stevensville employees and personnel access to the Sewer Treatment Facility. It was not intended to be a public thoroughfare, or to provide the general public access to the Town of Stevensville’s property for miscellaneous purposes,” wrote the Capps’ attorney Kevin Jones.
He states that public use of the easement over the Capps’ property recently led to several confrontations between Mr. and Mrs. Capp and third parties (not employees of the Town) who were using the sewer facility as a dumping ground. He states that the Capps have several photos of vehicles using the easement for dumping purposes and that the people claimed to have authorization from the Town to use the Capps’ property for access.
Mr. Capp recently placed a new chain and lock on the gate and gave Town employees a key to the lock in an effort to prevent access by third parties. Jones also registers a complaint about use of the access by Century/Tel to service a new cell phone tower built on the Town’s property. He claims that this, too, is beyond the original and intended scope of the easement.
Jones also claims that the roadway being used across the property is not part of the easement agreement which he claims was only granted along the north side of the Capp property. He said the Capps intend to block that road from any further traffic.
“Unless the town of Stevensville makes a reasonable proposal to limit future access over the Capps’ property to the Town of Stevensville’s sewer treatment property in the near future, I intend to file suit against the Town of Stevensville, seeking a temporary restraining order, permanent injunction, and damages Capps have incurred as a result of the impermissible expanded use of the easement,” wrote Jones.
The Capps are also claiming damages to the property during the construction work done in installing the cell phone tower. They claim $4,500 in loss of crops due to delayed repair work in 2014 and possibly the same in 2015 if nothing is done.
Mayor Gene Mim Mack told the council that the letter from the Capps’ attorney contained “obvious misstatements of material facts.” He said he was working with the Town’s attorney to provide an answer to the letter and an interpretation of how the Town interprets the easement agreement made in 1959. He said the Town has historically used the property to allow residents to dump old concrete since the 1980s and to dump yard trimmings since 1994. He said that the Town had a contract with Charter Communications to use the property for over 20 years.
“Over all this time we have received no objections about our use of the property,” said Mim Mack.
Mim Mack said that the use of the property as a drop off for yard trimmings had been discontinued.
“We didn’t want anyone else to be accosted down there and have pictures taken of them,” which is what happened, said Mim Mack. He said the Town’s attorney advised the closure be continued until such time as a better resolution could be worked out, due to public safety issues.
The Mayor said that the Town is asking people to pile their waste debris in the alley where it will be picked up by Town personnel and taken to the dump site at the treatment plant. He said the Town had been led to believe that the Capps, working with Senator Fred Thomas, were going to present a plan for a solution to multiple issues that have been raised concerning other potential property encroachments and problems concerning the fishing access site across the road.
He said apparently the Capps have chosen not to proceed with that plan and are now focusing only on the ingress/egress problems at the sewer plant.