Date: 08/25/2009 BRC received a call from Don Black, Land Use Director for the Utah Four Wheel Drive Association (U4WDA), regarding an effort by the Tooele County Commissioners to formally abandon certain public roads in the Ophir Mountains.
Some of the roads in question are: The Bald Mountain Loop Road, Hartman Gulch Road, Halls Basin Road, South Fork Ophir Canyon Road and Rover Hill Road.
Mike Swenson, Executive Director of the Utah Shared Access Alliance (USA-ALL), has posted a map of the potential closures on the "Take Back Utah" website: http://portal.takeba...aspx?tabid=3183
Utah law requires the state and the county to follow a procedure when formally abandoning a public right of way. Once the procedure is final, it will close all public access forever.
A key part of the abandonment process is opportunity to take public input regarding the closing of the roads. Don says Tooele County will hold their public meeting at the Commission Chambers in Tooele September 1, 2009, at 3:00 pm.
Now, there is very little information to give as to why the county is considering closing these roads, but we wanted to forward U4WDA's action alert to all our members in Utah. We also want to strongly encourage any BRC member living in Tooele County to try to attend this meeting.
Obviously, it may be difficult for working families to attend a meeting at 3:00 in the afternoon. So if you live in Tooele County, please contact your county commissioners if you are not able to attend.
Also, if you regularly use the roads mentioned, please contact BRC or Don at U4WDA as soon as possible. Our contact info is below.
Thanks,
Ric Foster
Public Lands Department Manager
BlueRibbon Coalition
208-237-1008 ext 107
The BlueRibbon Coalition is a national recreation group that champions responsible recreation, and encourages individual environmental stewardship. It represents over 10,000 individual members and 1,200 organization and business members, for a combined total of over 600,000 recreationists nationwide. 1-800-258-3742. http://www.sharetrails.org
Tooele County is in the process of vacating some public roads. These roads are in the Ophir Mountains and some of these roads provide valuable mountain top access.
Tooele County will be holding a meeting to decide whether or not to formally abandon these roads. We need a large turnout for this meeting to show the County Commissioners that the public does not want them giving away roads that belong to all the citizens of Tooele County.
Meeting Details
Date: September 1st, 2009
Time: 3:00 pm
Location: Tooele County Commission Chambers
Address: 47 S. Main Street, Room #210
Tooele, UT 84074
It is particularly important that we have residents of Tooele County at this meeting. Let your elected officials know that you do not support them giving away your roads.
Some of the roads in question are; The Bald Mountain Loop Road, Hartman Gulch Road, Halls Basin Road, South Fork Ophir Canyon Road and Rover Hill Road. If you use these roads, your information on what you use these roads for and any photos you have people using these roads could be very useful.
Thank you,
Don Black
Land Use Director
Utah Four Wheel Drive Assoc.
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