By: NICOLAS FIERRO
Salina Post
The Administrator of maintenance for the Saline County Road and Bridge Department provided clarification to a Facebook post from a member of the public presumably having issues with an employee.
The post was shared by Chad Koehn on Saturday, which stated he was "threatened" by a Saline County employee they were going to "call law enforcement on me (Koehn) for clearing snow on a county road so we could feed our horses."
He further added the employee "called me (Koehn) every name in the book as well."
Darren Fishel, Road and Bridge administrator responsible for maintenance provided transparency to the situation.
He stated there is a Kansas statute, 68-545 which says it is unlawful for a citizen to obstruct any portion of a public highway, right-of-way, with intent of preventing free use. The statute ends by stating a citizen can only plow a public owned county road unless they have been approved by the county engineer and the township board of highway commissioners acting jointly.
Fishel made it clear, he only assumes this was the statute the employee was referring to.
He added unless a citizen is tearing up the roadways or creating any sort of obstruction, they typically allow them to plow the snow.
According to Koehn, he was plowing snow out off the roadway to feed horses and to clear roadways for three of his neighbors.
"They need to get to their livestock, and this happens all the time. I am aware of that and we do not as a department, threaten people with law enforcement," said Fishel.
Fishel stated the employee was "out of line" for threatening to call law enforcement on Koehn.
"That is not how we treat people and we are here to treat them respectfully," said Fishel.
People can get utility permits, which allows citizens to work within the right-of-way for any reason.
Fishel has already spoken with the employee about the situation and apologized to Koehn.
Salina Post has reached out to Koehn for a comment.