Logging trucks and cow pastures don’t mix all that well, as a Hondo area farm couple are finding out. They want to lease a piece of land that they’ve been using as farmland for the past 30 years, after finding out that it’s actually an M.D. road allowance.
How Maurice and June Conrad found out was when a local company started hauling logs over the road allowance last winter. The logger had apparently inquired at the M.D. office and was told that the road allowance was available for his use. According to a letter the Conrads wrote to the M.D., the hauling caused about $3,000 damage to the land, which they have fenced. The Conrads are asking the M.D. for compensation, as well as applying to lease the road allowance so as to keep it as part of their grazing lease.
If they can’t lease it, they said in their Sept. 9 letter, “please finish building the road to standard to meet up with the paved road to Smith.” In advising council, M.D. Manager Allan Winarski said, “The first thing you do is see if they (the Conrads) have claim to the land. They don’t.”
The Conrads told the M.D. that the province, in approving a grazing lease back in 1978, had staked out the land in question, giving approval for its use. But Winarski said his research turned up no mention of the adjacent grazing lease extending onto the road allowance. The fence, therefore, is illegal, although Winarski didn’t say it should be removed. He also recommended against the M.D. seeking any compensation for all the years of use of its property. In fact, Winarski said the matter could possibly be settled by the installation of a Texas gate, as a similar conflict had been settled elsewhere in the M.D. some time ago. Councillor Brian Rosche favoured going easy on the fence.
“If he (the logger)’s able to haul logs and the fence isn’t causing a problem, why not leave the fence alone?”
As for compensation to the Conrads, Winarski said the M.D. clearly has no obligation. Councillor Murray Kerik agreed.
“If they want compensation it should be Public Lands, because they’re the ones that gave them permission in the first place.”
Council did not vote on the road lease application, preferring to wait until a site inspection settles any outstanding questions. But it seems unlikely they would grant the lease under the circumstances.
Said Reeve Denny Garratt: “It’s unfortunate they put their fence in the wrong place. But it is a road allowance and it is being used. Ergo, we can’t lease it.”

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