HERMISTON — The Hermiston property owners locked in a legal battle with Umatilla County and the city of Hermiston over a road improvement project on Airport and Ott roads were denied a motion for a temporary restraining order last week.

“It is unlikely the plaintiffs will prevail, and although it appears their fence and drain field may encroach on the road easement, there is insufficient evidence the county road improvement will encroach on their property or cause irreparable harm,” Umatilla County Circuit Court Judge Eva Temple ruled in her May 13 order on the motion.

The ruling may seem like a loss for Chris and Monique Waine’s case that seeks to resolve conflicts between county surveys, their property deed, and identified historical monuments, which they claim would subsequently prove that 11 feet on the north and 5 feet on the east side of their property is in fact theirs and not a county right-of-way. But the Waines won’t be deterred by it.

“The thing about an injunction is it’s not really a loss, we just lost the argument that we had a plethora of evidence that would land us in a favorable decision,” Chris Waine said. “There’s a lot of witness testimony that still needs to be had, there’s depositions that still need to happen.”

Waine said that the injunction also offered an opportunity for him and his attorneys to see what additional evidence the court will need to see and how it needs to be presented. But Waine said his team also relied heavily on survey records provided by the county in the injunction hearing, which are being impacted by excavation and additional surveys happening around the property now.

“The hard thing about this particular case is things are continually developing,” Waine said.

Ultimately, Waine said they’re hoping to prove the northeast corner of the property has been “lost” after mistakes were made during previous surveys and how historical monuments were tied to it.

While the legal process and ongoing standoff between the Waines and the county have been wearing on their family mentally and financially, they’re committed to fighting the injustices they believe they’ve faced and will continue to take the case to higher courts if last week’s ruling is a sign of more to come.

“We’re going to scrutinize what they’ve done in the past,” Waine said. “What this is really going to boil down to is was this done the right way, and I don’t think that it was.”

Meanwhile, the project’s construction has progressed and Waine said this week that contractors are paving the roads. The next court date has yet to be set, and Waine said things around the neighborhood may soon be quieting down, but he has no plans of backing away from the conflict.

“We’re going to keep holding the line,” he said.