Arkansas Canoe Club Forums

THE SALINE RIVER NEEDS YOUR HELP!

The Paul Wright access (aka Nickel Bill) is in danger of being gated on both sides of the river and consequently all accessibility would be lost to the general public. If you are not familiar with this area it is one of the most scenic sections of the Saline River, it has been an access for decades and the put in for our "long float." If you have ever floated with us you have more than likely put in at Paul Wright Ford as this is our most popular float.

Currently a petition has been filed to vacate the county road Tony Kelly on the Nickel Bill side and the end portion of Mt View on the Mt. View side and gates constructed on both sides thus preventing access. If you have ever, ever wanted to or have interest in maintaining this river access for many more generations PLEASE we ask you for your help.....HERE'S WHAT YOU CAN DO!

You can object to this petition via email to nicole.knight@salinecounty.org and CC angela.howell@salinecounty.org and jeff.arey@salinecounty.org (Saline County Judge) referencing petition to vacate #CC2019-7 and stating why you would object; my objections are: loss of recreational value, loss of access to one of the most scenic sections of the Saline River and loss of use for multiplied thousands of people.

ALSO call/email 501-223-6356 jennifer.sheehan@agfc.ar.gov and state your objections.

OTHER CONTACTS
District #9 Justice of the Peace (JP) David Gibson 501-794-8045--Mt. View side
District #6 JP Tammy Schmidt 501-515-0088--Tony Kelly side

AND PLEASE show up on THURSDAY APRIL 18th @ 10:00 am @ The Saline County Courthouse.

YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

associated docs

https://drive.google.com/drive/mobile/f ... drive_open

OK, someone requested a draft letter that folks could use to make a comment to the Court more quickly. I've put something together, and will attach it to one of the next comments. In the draft letter, I include some comments about the graph of river levels. I don't want anyone to say it just because I said so, so please take a look at the attached graph. If you want to change or customize the words further, feel free to do so.

Also, when you put together "your" version of the letter, please change the first paragraph as suggested in the notes that I have put IN ALL CAPS.

Thanks!

Here's a draft letter you can use to prepare an e-mail of your own. Just in case you don't have a compatible version of Word, I'll copy the text here in addition to attaching a file you can work with directly.

*****************************************************************************

PUT DATE HERE, MUST BE APRIL 14 or APRIL 15 !!!!!!!!

Via Email Only (jeff.arey@salinecounty.org)

Judge Jeff Arey
Saline County Court

Re: Docket CC2019-7

Judge:
(EDIT THE FIRST PARAGRAPH TO ADD WORDS IF YOU HAVE FLOATED THE ALUM FORK, AND ESPECIALLY IF YOU HAVE USED THE TONY KELLY / MOUNTAIN VIEW ROAD ACCESS, THEN DELETE THIS COMMENT.)

As a member of the travelling public and a person who regularly floats Arkansas rivers and streams, I wish to object to the petition for vacation of portions of Mountain View and Tony Kelly roads as described in Petition CC2019-7 which was filed on March 15, 2019. My objections to this petition are as follows:

The applicable law provides a process by which roads which are considered useless may be vacated. However, this road is not useless in that it has been regularly used as one of a very limited number of accesses for those wishing to float portions of the Alum Fork of the Saline River in Saline County. The road is used both by individual boaters, and by a commercial outfitter who rents canoes, Saline River Canoe. This river has been identified as a floatable stream in a number of public resources, including most notably the book “Ozark Whitewater” by Tom Kennon. I have learned that at least two of the accesses mentioned in “Ozark Whitewater” have either been vacated (closed to the public) previously, or have signage posted indicating “no parking”, making it questionable as to whether or not that access point may still be used. This loss of previously available accesses makes each new road closure a matter of great concern to me as a recreational floater.

Some of the claims made by the Petitioners are not credible to me. For example, the Petitioners claim that the road provides access to “often dangerous” waterways. Most river users make frequent reference to the International Scale of River Difficulty, which rates rivers from Class I (Easy) to Class VI (limit of navigability). Ozark Whitewater identifies the difficulty of the Alum Fork as “Class I-II”, in other words, ranging from “Easy” to “Medium” in difficulty. While any river can be dangerous when at or near flood stage, or if traveled by persons with limited skills or under the influence of alcohol or drugs, it would not be correct to call a Class I-II stream “often dangerous”.

The petitioners claim that the Sheriff’s department is often unable to patrol the areas in question “due to flooding and unsafe conditions of the road the majority of the year”. Again, as a person familiar with many rivers around our state, this is not a credible claim. Roads are not built where they would be flooded and unusable more than six months out of the year. Further, a quick review of the USGS data for the Saline River at Benton shows a graph profile that looks much like almost every other river in our State – the majority of the time, the river is at a relatively low level, with occasional, short duration “spikes” where it will exceed flood level for a few days per year at most. Many low lying city streets, county roads, and even some State Highways will experience short duration floods where the road is not passable, the road in question is not unique in this matter and need not be permanently closed for that reason.

The petitioners claim that Arkansas Game and Fish (AGF), the County Sheriff, and the Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) have all agreed that they own the river including sandbars and islands. Documents attached to the petition did not support this claim; there was no ACOE document attached at all, and documents from AGF and the County Sheriff made no claims or statements with respect to who owns the river, sandbars, or islands.

For the reasons stated above, I respectfully request the Court to deny the petition to vacate the subject roads.

Sincerely,
YOUR NAME
YOUR ADDRESS

cc: Clay Ford, Saline County Attorney (via email only clay.ford@salinecounty.org)
Nicole Knight (via email only nicole.knight@salinecounty.org)
Angela Hollowell (via email only angela.howell@salinecounty.org)