By Nicole Montesano • Staff Writer • 

Farmer alleges county contractors smashed his fence

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Comments

tagup

So his first call was to the News Register?.....

vanfarm

If this is how the county treats the neighboring farms during trail construction, you can only imagine the kind of neighbors the county will be once the trail is in place!

tagup

Appears that the alleged damage was by a contractor....the county didn’t even get a phone call according to the report....

Jim

The whole idea of this trail is a waste of everybody’s time. It only benefits Carlton and Yamhill’s tourist trade. It will benefit no one else in Yamhill County yet we will all get to pay for it. I hope the farmers keep it tied up in court for the next 100 years.

Tuvey

While I agree that the construction crew should have notified Schmidt it also sounds like vegetation may have obstructed their view of the fence. I'd like to know more about that. AND if Schmidt's fence is on the county property and not his own maybe that should be addressed too. As a follow up, how many farmers have fence lines encroaching on county land? Do they have permission? Is there an agreement in place? Have the farmers just put fencing up on property that seemed to be unused? What is the county doing to address these issues except for ignoring Mr. Van Dyke's cows?

Shasta

Jim, You're not ok with taxpayers building a trail for walking and riding bikes on, which has a large part paid for by grants? But you're perfectly fine with taxpayers wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars "Hoping the farmers keep it tied up in court for a hundred years"?
I at least like to see something when my tax dollars are spent.

Jim

Shasta anybody that buys a piece of land with no Master Plan, no permits or permission to build it and getting push back from the farmers that have every right to be pissed off is getting exactly what they deserve. If you believe that the fairy is bringing free money to dust the trail with I have some ocean front property in Arizona for sale. Grant money for the most part is taxpayer money to begin with. Let Casey Kulla build a trail on Grand Island with it going right thru his back yard.

Shasta

Jim, I already know where you stand on the trail so I wont debate that with you although I could dispute a few items in the comment you just posted.
Back to my original comment...a large part of your gripe is that its wasting a big pile of money that will only benefit Y-Cs "tourist trade". I'm not sure if I need to explain this to you but I will anyways, those businesses also pay taxes that contribute to the county. I figured you'd know that. So how does that only benefit Y-C?
But, again, you're ok with "fairy dusting" piles of money to tie it up in the courts for the next hundred years? Who is that benefiting? Last I checked the court system isn't a 'for profit' establishment. But it is funded by us taxpayers.

vanfarm

This corridor has been unused for decades. Many property deeds along the corridor contain easements to cross back and forth. Even though the county may have purchased the right of way, they shouldn't be barraging thru fences and crossings that have existed for years without working with the neighboring property owners. They keep promising they're going to play nice with everyone, but actions speak louder than words

tagup

“Barraging through fences” is a bit misleading don’t you think?.....From the report it doesn’t sound like anything more than an accident....certainly not premeditated....
You spoke of being good neighbors previously.....if a neighbor had an issue with something you had done inadvertently, wouldn’t you want to be the first phone call?....

Shasta

tagup, I'm envisioning a sloppy barbed wire fence buried in ten feet of overgrown blackberries. It's hard to see that when your walking near it let alone in a cabbed excavator.
Over-dramatic would be an understatement...."smashed through the fence", "I feel bullied”,"punched a 30-foot wide hole through my fence".
Never have I seen a farmer play the victim card so hard.
Do you know what else damages cattle fences? Cattle.

vanfarm

tagup, if this were Mr. Schmidt's first dealings with the county, then I would say yes, you are correct. But as he alluded to in the story, he has not been treated well in the past when trying to work with the county. Also, the past issue with the wire cuttings in Mr. VanDyke's pasture was taken up thru the county and they did nothing about it. Those are probably reasons why Mr. Schmidt decided to try a different avenue.

Shasta

vanfarm, You seem to be in tune with Mr Schmidt. What exactly was he trying to accomplish with this by going directly to the press? No where in the article did he ever state how he wanted to resolve the matter, only that he feels he was victimized. To me it seems like the only goal was to get some attention. It also sounds like the fence may have been on county property. Mend your fence and move on, geez.

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