To the Editor:

Dear Mr. Abeles-Allison,

I was called last evening by a committee member in attendance that the ad hoc committee set up by the Bayfield County Board to resolve the rail grade issue met on Aug. 25. I was told that the committee voted to try and approach Bill McKinney and myself asking that we provide the County with an easement across our property 200 yards west of the abandoned rail grade.

Thirteen months into this controversy it surprises me. No need to even ask: We will not provide any kind of easement across any part of our property for use as a recreation trail for snowmobiles or ATVs. I am faxing this notice to you today so that no further delays can be orchestrated by the recreational members of the committee.

In July of 2003, Bucky Jardine as head of the Tourism Committee, convened a meeting in Cable which included the DNR and members from Bayfield, Sawyer, and Barron counties. Under cover of this immunity 'as an elected official, he announced that Bayfield County controlled the abandoned rail grade and that snowmobiles and ATV s would be running on the grade by the Spring of 2004. He had convened the meeting with the purpose of making plans for implementing the recreation trail. With that public announcement he effectively clouded the ability to sell any land from Bayfield to Hayward that was crossed by the rail grade.

In the thirteen months since then, we have had a constant changing of the alleged reason that the County has rights to the grade. First to be announced was that it was due to the Mauler Case, then 43 U. S. C. 912, then 1988 rails to trails, then the 1875 Act, then 1852 and recently rumored RS 2477.

Yesterday, Bucky was back on the l852 Act. Certainly by now it should be obvious to you that the ATV and snowmobile people have no solid basis for the claim of ownership. The County has spent thousands of dollars of taxpayer money for legal opinions, held numerous public and private meetings and yet 13 months after the initial clouding of our titles, the County has yet to announce its position with regard to grade ownership.

It seems to me that it is past time for you to step up to the plate in your job as County Administrator and prove your abilities to administrate the County's affairs. End this use of the County and taxpayer money to pursue the claims of Earl Orner, Tom and Pat Thornton, Jardine and their followers. If they really think they can prove rights to the grade, it is time for them to do so on their own. The County, after several prior postponements, said it would announce its position at the August meeting. I had in my only public statement back in December 2003, said and was quoted in the Daily Press as accusing the county of stalling. This last minute request for an easement across our property is such a stall. It is time in the words every school child understands, to put up or shut up.

Garfield Brown. Cable