Sagle's Camp Bay Road was constructed for public's benefit

I am writing to correct the fictional history of Camp Bay Road presented in the letter to the editor (Daily Bee, Nov. 28, 2023) from my brother, Jim Green. 

In 1909, when the road was constructed at public expense, only two people lived at the lake end of the road, our great-grandmother and our grandfather. Instead of ending at the property line, the road continued across their private property for about a quarter mile. This expenditure of public money for a road through private property had to be done for a purpose beneficial to the public. There was nothing at the end of the road of benefit to the public in 1909 except access to the lake. Transportation at that time for people, freight, and mail was by steamboat to other ports such as Sandpoint, Hope, and Bayview.

Jim Green wants you to believe that the pioneer population of 1909 would have paid tax money to travel the road to within feet or inches of the lake only to then be barred from launching a fishing boat, boarding a steamboat, or watering a horse.  I remember that pilings for the steamboat dock were still present in the lake in the early 1950s when we swam from the beach at the end of the road. The road was built to encourage steamboats to stop.  The steamboat company accommodated by constructing a dock that rested on pilings driven into the lake bottom and was accessible from the road.

How important the lake was for transportation is demonstrated by the fact that, as late as 1924, when our grandmother was in labor with our mother, our grandfather rowed to Hope in January to fetch a doctor.

Citizens should know that the shareholders of our family company received no value from the road vacation. The vacation of the road must have increased the value of the property by several million dollars. 

Also important is the conflict of interest in Steve Klatt’s role in the road vacation. This conflict was supposedly disclosed to the county, but my inquiries to the county have not returned any evidence of disclosure. My understanding is that the first county approval of the road vacation was overturned by reason of my being silenced in a public hearing while trying to expose the conflict. Bonner County has shown so little interest in getting to the bottom of that conflict that no one has even contacted me. Citizens interested in access to the lake from Camp Bay Road should solve the mystery surrounding the road vacation. Your county officials have no curiosity.

Steve Klatt was also employed to secure rights to subdivide our family company’s property through a certificate of compliance while he was simultaneously employed by Bonner County. Again, the county should be able to produce written documents proving that the conflict was disclosed. Where are they?

GARY GREEN

Tualatin, Ore.