Staff photo / Raymond L. Smith Local businessman and farmer Joseph Hray, is seen standing along a county-owned access road that travels through his property. Hray questions why the Trumbull County Commissioners are now trying to stop him from using the road even though he’s been using it for the 12 years he has owned the property.

WARREN — The Trumbull County Commissioners voted 2-1 Wednesday to send a cease-and-desist letter to local businessman Joseph Hray asking him to stop using a county-owned road to get onto property he owns off McMullen Street SE in Brookfield.

Commissioners Niki Frenchko, who drafted the resolution, and Mauro Cantalamessa agreed to have the letter sent to Hray immediately.

The two commissioners, ostensibly, are seeking to prevent the county from being liable if someone or some company uses the access road and there is a personal injury or equipment is damaged.

However, during discussions about the access road closure, various people, including Cantalamessa and Trumbull Auditor Martha Yoder, mentioned their concern about a non-active injection well on the property. A company leasing a portion of Hray’s land is working to get permission to start using the well.

Licenses to operate injection wells are provided by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, not county or other local governments.

Hray doesn’t understand why suddenly there is concern about him using the access road when he has been using it for all of the 12 years he has owned the property.

County Commissioner Denny Malloy has argued county officials should not stop Hray from using the road because they do not like how part of his property may be used by a company that is leasing it.

“It is discriminatory,” Malloy said. “We don’t stop farmers with properties on either side of the bike trail from crossing it to get to their properties. People do it all of the time. Why are we treating him differently from others in the county?”

Hray, on Thursday, described he has not had a problem with the county in using the access road until Select Water Solutions LLC took over the lease he had with a previous company to operate the injection well. The new lessee has applied to make the injection well operational.

“I’m not the bad guy here,” Hray said. “I’ve lived in Trumbull County all of my life. I want to see the county continue to grow.”

Hray is a farmer and owns several other businesses. He owns approximately 110 acres in the Brookfield area. He purchased the land in the center of this dispute because it borders his farm.

He says he placed numerous no trespassing, stop and other signs around the property to discourage others from going on it.

Much of the property is overgrown with trees and bushes. Several dilapidated and abandoned buildings are on the two properties.

Hray described that over the years he has filed more than 100 trespassing reports with the Brookfield Police Department about people being on the property. He described having vehicles and equipment, as well as copper wiring and pipes stolen from his property, as well as stolen from the county’s water tower.

“No one patrols this area,” Hray said. “I have not seen a sheriff vehicle patrolling the property since I’ve purchased it. That’s why I come here, sometimes up to three times a day, to check.”

“I feel I’ve been a good partner and a good neighbor with the county,” he said.

The two properties — the county’s and Hray’s — criss-cross one another. The county-owned access road crosses through them.

The county has a water tower and is building its new $1.5 million MARCS tower on its 3.4 acres. The MARCS radio tower is expected to improve radio communication among safety services in the northern portion of Trumbull County.

Hray’s property surrounds the county land. However, according to a Google map of the property, there is no existing roadway in the area where the injection well is located.

Critics of the injection well have seized on the argument that trucks have been illegally trespassing on the county’s property and should not be allowed to do it.

During Wednesday’s commissioners meeting, Frenchko asked clerk Lisa DeNunzio Blair to obtain a resolution the commissioner said should have been on the agenda, but was not.

Malloy, defending Blair, said Frenchko’s proposed resolution was not placed on the agenda because the process had been done incorrectly.

Malloy, who argued against the cease-and-desist letter vote, told his fellow commissioners he received a phone call from former Commissioner Frank Fuda early Wednesday morning during which Fuda told him an easement was approved allowing Hray to use the access road when Dan Polivka, Paul Heltzel and himself were commissioners.

Malloy noted that Fuda told him that former Assistant Trumbull County Prosecutor Jason Earnhart helped to draft the document.

Heltzel died in 2014.

Fuda, according to Malloy, does not have a copy of the resolution. Hray says his former attorney is searching his records for documents that would show he has an easement from the county to use the access road.

Malloy described wanting to table Frenchko’s cease-and-desist resolution for one week to provide the commissioners’ clerks time to locate Fuda’s resolution.

Assistant County Prosecutor Bill Danso said it could not have been Earnhart who wrote or co-wrote the document because Danso has provided most of the legal work since 2011.

Earnhart already left the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s office when Danso was hired.

Danso said he does not recall any discussions or written documents that gave the businessman the right to use the county road.

“The sale never included that roadway,” Danso said. “If there is an easement that exists, it is news to me. I’ve heard rumors he has the right to purchase it for a dollar. I’ve not seen it or (been) aware of it.”

Yoder noted she has all the known documents surrounding the lawsuit that led to the county selling the property to Hray, with the county retaining 50% of the mineral rights. She stated Hray has owned the property since 2012.

Yoder said Hray was well aware there was no road when he purchased the property.

Even if Hray is prevented from using about 200 feet of the access road, Yoder said, “He is not landlocked.”

“He has frontage on McMullen Street SE and on Stewart Sharon Road,” Yoder said.

Yoder said because of the work being done on the MARCS tower, the county should be concerned about its equipment.

“Neither Mr. Hray nor Select Water Solutions LLC has an easement, nor has one been formally presented,” Yoder said.

“Mr. Hray said there is a provision in the purchase agreement that allows him to purchase the access road for $1. An examination of the purchase agreement shows no such provision.”

“Due to the liability issues, I ask the commissioners to give notice to both Mr. Hray and Select Water Solutions LLC to cease trespassing,” Yoder said. “Also, I ask the commissioners to put up a security gate or fence to be accessed only by those with county business to complete.”

Cantalamessa expressed concern about a school being near the injection well and said he is concerned about the work being done.

“I understand this is a business and it is not being regulated locally, I think we need to be more concerned with the residents,” he said. “Over the course of the years that I’ve been here, this has been a dumping ground for states that truck it over here. I’m not going to facilitate anything that is going to allow this to happen.”

Cantalamessa said the use of the access road by the injection well company will further tear up the road.

“I just think it is prudent to send the cease and desist order,” he said.

Malloy described this vote being “…. a very slippery slope we are traveling on.”

He noted they are potentially discriminating against Hray because of the business he is in or who he is leasing to.

Malloy has asked the commissioner’s clerks to see if they can locate the easement.

“They will need time, because it goes back to Paul Heltzel days,” Malloy said.

Hray, according to Malloy, is planning to apply for an easement and McMullen Street SE can be extended, which would allow him to create a new road onto his property near the injection well.

In the meantime, Hray questions why no one from the county called him to express their concerns before this issue.

“We should have been able to sit across the table from one another to discuss whatever safety issues they have concerns with,” he said.

Frenchko said the commissioners are acting to protect county property.

She notes the county should place cameras on the poles around the access road to make sure that no non-county employee or designee uses it.

Hray has not received any letter from the county about his use of the access road.

“If I receive a letter, I’ll respect it,” he said.

Frenchko argued the commissioners are asking Hray to simply follow the law and not trespass.

However, Hray added, he has not decided what he will do if he cannot have access to his property.