BEN NEARY Associated Press writer | Posted: Thursday, October 5, 2006 12:00 am
CHEYENNE - A district judge on Thursday issued a temporary restraining order that restores public access to Hawk Springs State Park until a court hearing next week, state officials say.
District Judge Keith Kautz issued the order at the request of the state. The order requires Phase 23 LLC, a private company that recently purchased land in the area in southern Goshen County, and Horse Creek Conservation District, which sold the land, to continue to allow public access until the court hearing.
Kautz has scheduled a court hearing for Oct. 12 in Torrington on a lawsuit in which the state has requested an injunction against blocking access to the land.
"Hunters, anglers and everyone who enjoys the outdoors have every right to access a public recreation site that was purchased and maintained with their tax dollars," Gov. Dave Freudenthal said Thursday. "While this isn't the final decision, it certainly restores that access in the short term."
Hawk Springs State Park contains Hawk Springs Reservoir, a popular fishing and boating lake.
The state maintains that the conservation district is required to provide public access to the recreation site in perpetuity.
An attempt to reach Curtis Buchhammer, lawyer for the conservation district, for comment Thursday morning was unsuccessful.
According to a media release from Freudenthal's office, the recreation area was created in the 1980s and included land owned by both the conservation district and the state. The release says the state in 1983 lent the district about $2 million and granted more than $6 million for repairs and improvements to the Hawk Springs Reservoir and related irrigation structures.
The release states that in exchange for the state funding, the conservation district agreed to "grant public access in perpetuity to the Hawk Springs Reservoir proper and to all adjacent lands owned by the district or the state for the purpose of hunting, fishing, and general recreation…."
Last month, the conservation district sold 40 acres to the limited liability company, including the access road. Following the sale, Buchhammer notified the Wyoming Game and Fish Department that that public use of the road leading to the recreation area, "must be terminated."
Attorney General Pat Crank said that while the present conservation district officials may not like the access agreements the district entered into in the 1980s, they aren't at liberty to ignore them.
"We're pleased," Crank said Thursday of the judge's action. "What we urged the court to do in our filings was to maintain the status quo that has existed since 1983, pending further hearings, and that's what the court did with the temporary restraining order.
"The public was granted perpetual access to that area back in 1983, and a structured real estate deal should not be allowed to block that," Crank said.