Wilson Creek port turns boundary to attorney

Commissioners table discussion of encroachment

WILSON CREEK — Commissioners at the Port of Wilson Creek are turning over a boundary dispute to their attorney.

At their board meeting Wednesday evening, commissioners Gary Ribail, Ron Lesser and Sheldon Ralston decided to turn an issue with the Wilson Creek airport runway over to port attorney Katherine Kinison.

The decision followed a discussion amongst the commissioners over the matter.

At the September board meeting, Wilson Creek resident Ken Friend and Mayor Kathy Bohnet told commissioners the east end of the runway encroached onto private property. Friend and the town swapped property in about 1989 so that the port could extend the airport runway. But the runway apparently extended over land he planned to sell to the government. Friend said a survey of the land discovered the runway extended 250 feet too far.

Ribail stated during the Wednesday meeting, the port would do best to settle with Friend.

"It's not worth arguing over $200 in land, because that land up there ain't worth nothing," he said. "It's just not worth spending a lot of time on nothing."

Neither Friend, Bohnet, Kinison nor any other member of the public was in attendance at Wednesday's meeting. Friend declined to comment when reached the next day.

During the same meeting, Wilson Creek business owner Roger Blackman received payment for several airport maintenance projects he performed for the port, and approval to proceed with several more, including fixing a light, cleaning up a taxiway, replacing a windsock and creating a berm to halt trespassing onto the land.

The port intends to negotiate with a Marlin resident to set up a bookkeeping system for 2007.

Ralston will attend a meeting in November to discuss a feasibility study for the port district.