Elko Daily Free Press from Elko, Nevada • 1

V- Vol. 116 No. 250 Established Jan. 5, 1883 Elko, Elko County, Nevada 50 Cents OCTOBER 21, 1999 18 Pages Commission sets inquiry on South Road K7 i ft- if 0 iJf ft -1 in i O.g. "Chris" Johnson reads a letter from U.S.

Senate candidate John Ensign to begin last night's town hall meeting on Nevada gun laws. More than 250 people attended the meeting, getting information from Elko County Sheriff Neil Harris, Elko Police Chief Clair Morris and Gun World owner Marty Shaw: Elko Councilman John Ellison organized the event. Gun draws crowd seminar Ria DonovanFret Press praise Clark County was instead requiring its residents to register their weapons. He said the Nevada Legislature gave sheriffs the authority to issue the permits, making the permits good statewide. Harris said he has discussed a possible problem of snowmobilers or hunters being arrested by federal lawmen while carrying a concealed handgun under their cold-weather clothing.

He said, technically, a handgun carried under or inside a snowmobile suit or even one in a holster under a long coat, is concealed. "I've been assured by the (U.S.) Fish Wildlife Service and (U.S.) Forest Service that they will not arrest anyone in those instances," Harris said. Harris said he would enter California with a handgun concealed in his vehicle, but that he just wouldn't make it known he had a weapon until it was needed in some sort of emergency. "I'd rather be tried by 12 than carried by six," Harris said, referring to jurors and pallbearers. Shaw said anyone carrying a handgun should get the proper training required of the weapon.

Shaw said there are several qualified trainers in the Elko area, including himself and Harris, and there are classes offered at Great Basin College that people should take advantage of to learn the safe and correct way to handle handguns. Shaw said that even in Elko, the need to be proficient with a handgun is becoming more and more necessary with incidents of murder and robbery seeming to be on the increase. "We have some of the best peace officers in the state, right here in this county," Shaw said in closing. "But I tell you this: A gun in the hand is better than a cop on the phone." The law in Nevada concerning the possession of firearms and the position of Elko County's lawmen concerning that right caused one Californian last night to declare a visit to the area as like coming to a "friendly country." Dick Noles of Bishop, told a group of more than 250 residents attending a town hall meeting at the Elko Convention Center designed to answer questions concerning gun ownership how fortunate they are to have leaders like Elko Councilman John Ellison, who organized the event, Sheriff Neil Harris and Police Chief Clair Morris. "The people in this audience must be the luckiest people in the United States," Noles said after Morris and Harris had explained the legality of not only possessing handguns, but also the legality of keeping that handgun loaded and concealed in homes and vehicles.

i really appreciate the fact of what you folks are doing, standing up for your Second Amendment rights," Noles said. "This is like coming to friendly country when you're from California." Harris informed Noles he was welcome in Elko County. "There's lots of places for sale," he quipped. Ellison organized the event because several people had questioned hifti about what was allowed and was not allowed concerning gun possession. He decided to make the experts Harris, Morris and Gun World owner Marty Shaw, available to answer those luiMIl i I ''-oy-UXn" Canyon By Chris Fotheringham WENDOVER Elko County Commissioners heeded a new petition and an obscure state statute yesterday, scheduling a two-day factfinding inquiry they hope will decide the fate of Jarbidge's South Canyon Road.

"We have no choice. We have to do it," Commission Chairman Tony Lesperance said after receiving the petition carrying the signatures of 14 Jarbidge residents. The petition also cites a little-used statute (NRS 405.195), which requires and empowers a county commission to respond to citizens seeking to open a public road. While petitions have come and gone in the years-long jurisdictional fight between the'county and the U.S. Forest Service over the road, this one is different and Elko commissioners wasted little time in jumping at the opportunity.

"I was hoping it would give it at least a slight color of state law," Robert Buckalew of Jarbidge said today. "Once it's on the record, it would make it very difficult for any judge, even a tree-hugging judge, to rule against it." Buckalew, a semi-retired attorney and onetime law partner of former Nevada Gov. Grant Sawyer, said he discovered the law and organized the petition within the past two weeks. "It's something I just stumbled across by doing a little research," Buckalew said. "I hadn't heard about it before and I practiced law everyday for 35 years.

Obviously it is not well-used." Voting 5-0, the board agreed to convene a hearing at 8 a.m. on Nov. 18 in the Elko Convention Center to take testimony and sit in judgment as to why South Canyon Road should or should not be reopened. "This is a good deal," Commissioner Mike Nannini said. "I'm glad we're doing this." The commission's new out-of-court strategy is just the latest in a series of developments regarding the road, which has been closed in one form or another since flooding partially washed out the scenic passageway in June 1995, cutting off access to the Jarbidge Wilderness boundary.

Also yesterday: Commissioners decided not to intervene "yet" in the case involving a group of citizens who organized a "work party" two weeks ago to reclaim the road. That work was stopped by a federal judge's, temporary restraining order. U.S. District Court Judge David Hagen has postponed tomorrow's hearing to determine whether that temporary order should become a permanent injunction. Assemblyman John Carpenter, R- and U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to work with Elko County toward a compromise. "I want to get away from the intransigent resistance of the administration and the reactionary efforts that some people have in mind that aren't going to get us to a solution," Gibbons said today in a telephone interview from Washington. "We have to get away from this bickering and the battle lines that the government has drawn up there," he said. Chenoweth-Hage, a conservative viewed by national environmental organizations as an enemy, was not immediately available for comment. Aides on her subcommittee did not immediately return telephone Gibbons was unsuccessful in an earlier attempt this year to bring a panel hearing to Nevada on the topic.

But he said today that the situation has grown worse since the U.S. Justice Department threatened to sue Elko County over damage to the Jarbidge River the government says was caused by a county road crew that tried to repair the road in the summer of 1998. "Now we find the U.S. government bringing the full force of its weight against a small county," Gibbons said. "The sense of frustration for a number of county residents has led to an announcement for citizens to travel to Jarbidge to use 'people power to restore part of the road," he said in the letter to Chenoweth-Hage.

"We should not allow this to go any further without a clear explanation to Congress of the entire course of events leading up to this potential lawsuit and risk of individual citizens being charged with violations," he said. Elko, Elko attorney Grant Gerber, and Elko businessman O.Q. "Chris Johnson, all individually named in the TRO, now have until Nov. 29 to make their case against a permanent injunction in writing, after which a new hearing date may be set. Deputy District Attorney Kristin McQueary reported to the board that Assistant U.S.

Attorney Steven Myhre informed her he needs more time to digest the historic research accumulated by licensed land surveyor Bill Price, of Elko documentation commissioners believe proves the county, not the federal government, owns the McQueary reported she filed a brief Monday in Elko District Court responding to the Nevada Attorney General's defense of a finding last fall by the Nevada Environmental Commission that Elko County road crews violated state water pollution laws when they attempted to reopen the road in July 1998. In the state's case, the NEC has recommended the county be fined no more than $1,000 for each of the two days the county worked on the road. In the federal case, the U.S. Justice Department has demanded Elko County taxpayers reimburse the forest service $400,000 for its work to blockade the road. -The suit also threatens the county with a'maximum daily fine of $27,500, which to date amounts to $12,622,500.

While the county believes establishing ownership of the road is critical in each of the three cases, the federal government, while also claiming ownership, is employing the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act as justification for keeping the road closed. For the Jarbidge petitioners, their case is succinct: "The road was accepted by us as access to mining claims; it was accepted by the state or local government for dedication as a road for public use; reopening the road, would result in a benefit to the general public with no significant impairment of the environment or natural resources; would be no reduc tioii in the value of public or private property." But more important is the statutory authority the petition invokes, giving commissioners the opportunity to use state law to reaffirm the sovereignty they believe the county has always had to maintain the road to the benefit of local residents. "We are encouraging that any and all persons who have information on this road come forward," Lesperance said, as he outlined a schedule for the inquiry which would run from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov.

18 and continue through the next day if necessary. "The findings can go either way," McQueary warned the board. "You are a fact-finding board. I certainly would like you to remain as objective and open as you can Listen to everyone carefully." "As chairman of this commission." Lesperance responded, "I can assure you this commission will remain open-minded." Asking McQueary to provide commissioners with specific details on what is required by the statute in conducting the inquest, Lesperance said. "We want to make this hearing not only technically correct, but also it will be significant.

I just want to make sure we do it right." Dot Creechley, a Jarbidge resident who had signed the petition, asked commissioners, "Would written statements suffice for someone who can't be there, like Helen Wilson?" Wilson, 89, is the oldest living Jarbidge resident and considered the turn-of-the-century mining town's local historian because of her personal and family knowledge of the area. McQueary suggested that Wilson prepare a notarized affidavit for the inquiry and also suggested the possibility of setting up a speaker-phone arrangement so she could provide live testimony. Lesperance, citing Wilson's knack for "getting on a roll," offered the county's assistance in trying to find a way for Wilson to testify in person. Just how the fact-finding inquiry will affect the three separate court cases that have enveloped the South Canyon Road dispute remains to be seen. But given the formal trappings of the hearing, which will include sworn testimony and a court recorder, information gathered on Nov.

18-19 is likely to find its way into the court record. Still, confident of the county's position, commissioners welcomed the opportunity the petition affords them to sit as fact-finders in the dispute, weighing the pros and cons of reopening the road and making a final decision. "This makes us the judge. It's our determination as to whether that road is opened or closed." Lesperance said. "It will be a test of several things.

It is going to be a test of what authority a county commission has or doesn't have." questions, as weil as any other question a gun owner might have. Organizers realized early last night that the one room they reserved at the convention center was not going to be big enough and they had to remove a wall to let the crowd overflow into a second meeting room. The meeting began with the reading of a letter from U.S. Senate candidate John Ensign, supporting the efforts of the group in protecting and invoking their Second Amendment rights. "I believe the Second Amendment protects the people from the government," wrote Ensign, a Las Vegas veterinarian who lost one of the closest races in Nevada history to Sen.

Harry Reid, last year. Ensign now is seeking the seat held by Sen. Richard Bryan, who has announced he will not run again, Morris said Nevadans live in a state that also has concluded the Second Amendment insures the people "the, right to keep and bear arms," but neighboring states are not in keeping with the U.S. Constitution. In Nevada, a person may carry a of the number of people to expect.

Ruby Valley is a ranching community on the east side of the Ruby Mountains. On its south end is the Ruby Marsh National Wildlife Refuge and a state fish hatchery. Fort Ruby, a Army fort, was located in the valley in the 1860s. The Pony Express had a station that was later moved to the Northeastern Nevada Museum in Elko. Shantytown is also located in Ruby Valley.

Hastings Cutoff was an alternate Inside loaded handgun concealed in his vehicle, which Nevada law views as an extension of his home. But driving that same vehicle over the border into California could result in a felony arrest. He said the law on the "left coast" requires the handgun and the ammunition to be separate and that they must be locked up in the trunk or somewhere else nowhere near the driver of the vehicle. "So don't put your hogleg under the front seat and go to California, because you could be in a whole lot of trouble," Morris said. In other neighboring states, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming and Montana, the law governing handguns is not as strict as California, but neither is it as straightforward as Nevada.

He recommended anyone planning to travel anywhere outside of Nevada and desiring to carry a firearm, call a law enforcement agency first, to determine the law and whether that state recognizes Nevada's concealed weapon permits. Harris, who is responsible for issuing those permits in Elko County, said people should remember the key word in the permit concealed and keep their firearms out of sight. "Nobody needs to know you've got a concealed weapon," Harris said. "You've all met those people, because pretty soon they're hiking up their pants showing their gun off." Harris dispelled rumors that Clark County was not honoring permits issued outside of the county, saying route on the California Trail that was followed by the Donner Party in 1846. Historical society members will point out trail traces from that period and the location of other points noted in emigrant diaries.

"It will be an opportunity for newcomers to become acquainted with an area of northeastern Nevada and its history," Museum Director Lisa Seymour said. The tour is sponsored by the museum guild. Maps will be furnished to all participants. I Museum photos) Settlers were pictured at top on a boating trip at Franklin Lake in Ruby Valley. At left, residents are shown on an early 20th century ride through the valley.

"1 1 1 1.1" di-sr. 11-1 Gibbons seeking House hearing on South Canyon Ruby Valley tour Sunday A tour of Ruby Valley to locate points of historical interest, including the identification of family ranches, is planned by the Northeastern Nevada Historical Society for this Sunday. Participants are asked to assemble at the museum at 8 a.m., with their own picnic lunches and other necessities for a daylong trip. Carpooling will be arranged at that time. Those interested in taking part are asked to call the museum at 738-3418 so organizers have an idea RENO, Nev.

(AP) Rep. Jim Gibbons is trying to bring a House subcommittee to Nevada for an emergency hearing on an increasingly volatile dispute between the Forest Service and private property activists over protection of a threatened fish. "There is a climate of distrust between the U.S. government and the citizens of Elko County that has a potential to further escalate," Gibbons, said today in a letter to Rep. Helen Chenoweth-Hage, R-Idaho Hage is the chairman of the House Resources subcommittee on forests and forest health.

Gibbons said he's hopeful she will bring her panel to Elko before a federal judge holdsahearingattheendof next month, on whether to extend a court order prohibiting Elko County citizens from rebuilding a road at the center of the dispute in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest The road in a remote mountain canyon south of Jarbidge near the Idaho border washed out in a flood in 1995. Forest Service scientists say reconstruction of the road would accelerate erosion and jeopardize survival of the only surviving population of threatened bull trout in Nevada the southernmost population of the fish known to exist in the United States. Local citizens led by a state assemblyman planned to defy the agency and rebuild the road by hand two weekends ago before U.S. District Judge David Hagen issued a temporary restraining order to keep them away. Sen.

Richard Bryan, and Nevada Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa were among those who expressed concern the citizen work project could turn violent if locals were confronted by government agents. Gibbons blames the Forest Service 'J 1.