PENDLETON – So many people showed up for the Umatilla County commissioners meeting Tuesday that they had to move the meeting to a larger room.

Umatilla County commissioners were discussing a road on the North Fork of the Walla Walla River.

Government Mountain LLC asked the county help it gain access to property it owns in the area by one of two roads.

Dennis Karnopp of Bend, one of the partners in the ranch, said there was an unused county road that ran back to the area but it was barricaded. There is also a private road blocked by a locked gate that runs through the property of Carol Sams.

It did not matter which route the county preferred to use, as the group only wanted access to that area, he said.

“We just want to have access to the property up the river that is adjacent to and served by the existing county road,” Karnopp said.

Other landowners have access to the private road through keys provided by Sams, Karnopp said. The group wanted something similar. They wanted to use the land for personal hunting and fishing, he added.

“We want access by that road to our property,” he said.

Leland Sams, a landowner, said that the groups had access to their property via a county road on the other side of the property.

“If they hadn’t abused the key, it would have been OK,” Sams said. “But they abused the key and made keys and gave it to a lot of people down in Bend.”

Attorney Steve Corey, who was representing Carol Sams, who owns the property the private road runs through, said the group knew they had no public access to the property from that side when they purchased the land.

He produced a map marked to show all the property owners in the area and pointed out even reopening the county road would not help the Government Mountain group.

“Even if you get to the county road, the county road doesn’t get to the property,” Corey said.

Brian Wolcott, coordinator for the Walla Walla Basin Watershed Project, said his group opposed reopening the county road because it crossed the river several times in that area. The north fork of the river is a prime spawning habitat for steelhead and bull trout, and rebuilding the road would disturb the fish.

Ultimately the commissioners decided to let the property owners try to work the matter out among themselves.

“It seems like the parties are really best suited to solve the issue,” said Commissioner Emile Holeman.

Commissioner Dennis Doherty echoed the sentiment: “I would hope that would happen before the county has to invest too much time and effort in this.”

Doherty said he was concerned that the county road did not access the Government Mountain property.

The board will hold hearings on the issue later if the parties can’t come to a conclusion, Holeman said.

The commissioners left the concerned parties to discuss the matter and adjourned to the smaller room where the meeting began.

The commissioners also decided to table the matter of improving Culp Lane. Doherty said in discussions he had there seemed to be confusion about the road and what was to be done.

He suggested that the matter be tabled until a less contentious solution could be found.

“I have a feeling that this in not ready to go ahead,” he said.