Order seeks end to bypass dock dispute

SANDPOINT - The Idaho Transportation Department has secured a court order which clears the way for the removal of docks that were holding up construction of the U.S. Highway 95 bypass.

District Judge John Mitchell issued a temporary restraining order Tuesday requiring Sandpoint Marina owner Ralph Sletager to remove the docks himself or stand by as the state extracts them from Sand Creek.

The restraining order comes a day after the Idaho Transportation Department filed for a preliminary injunction against Sletager in 1st District Court. The restraining order will remain in effect until the preliminary injunction motion is heard next week, court records show.

Sletager's counsel, Sandpoint attorney John Finney, could not be reached for comment late Tuesday. It was not immediately clear how quickly the state would act in removing the docks, which are located at the mouth of the creek.

Sletager maintains the 25 boat slips in question are properly permitted and ITD's efforts to have them removed amount to a government taking without compensation. The state contends the docks are an unlawful encroachment onto state right of way which is holding up construction work in that part of the creek.

The dispute over the docks has simmered for several years and nearly boiled over last week, when project officials used a state police escort to evaluate the docks in preparation for their removal.

"The ITD has had at last four years to find an appropriate solution. I'm wondering why it had to come to this," Sletager said in a statement issued on Friday.

Sletager estimated the docks removal would result in $500,000 in economic losses to his marina business over a 10-year period. Finney has previously stated the appropriate solution is condemnation proceedings.

The state, however, opted for a different legal tack. Counsel for ITD moved for a court order declaring the docks an illegal encroachment that threatened to harm taxpayers with multi-million-dollar project delays.

The docks were preventing contractor Parsons RCI from starting work on a coffer dam and bridge footings, according to ITD's motion.

"If the Byway Project cannot commence construction as scheduled, it is very likely that construction will be delayed at least a year," the state's motion said.

The state acknowledged in the motion that Sletager has an Idaho Department of Lands permit for docks in Sand Creek, but not the ones targeted for removal. The state argues the slips in question were installed contrary to a 1995 permit which forbid Sletager from expanding the docks east of ITD's property line.

The case assigned to Judge Steve Verby, who voluntarily disqualified himself for no stated reason. The case was reassigned to Mitchell, who is hearing Sletager's pending lawsuit against IDL.

That suit challenges an encroachment permit IDL granted to ITD for the bypass.