Finley fight
BRIAN BOE talks to his brother, Brad, Monday morning while standing in his Finley Point cherry orchard. Due to a dispute over an access road into the orchard, the brothers say they cannot harvest their cherry crop. Rather than let the 30,000 pounds of cherries go to waste, the men are inviting the public to come pick the cherries for free when they ripen next week. Karen Nichols photos/Daily Inter Lake
Cherry growers to give away harvest amid road dispute
By LYNNETTE HINTZE
The Daily Inter Lake
A right-of-way dispute between two neighbors on Flathead Lake's Finley Point has yielded a fortuitous public outcome: 30,000 pounds of free cherries.
Brian Boe said he and his brother, Brad Boe, are giving away their entire harvest this year because they can't access their cherry trees with vehicles and don't want the fruit to go to waste. The crop will be ready for harvest within the next week, and pickers need only to bring buckets and walk to the orchard.
The Boes' orchard is about three miles off Montana 35; a sign will be posted. Pickers will have to walk about 200 feet up a steep grade to reach the 6-acre orchard. Picking hours will be 6 a.m. to noon; call 885-3064 for further information.
The trouble started in early April when the Boes set out to upgrade a shared road with an easement across property recently purchased by Scott Smith and Nancy Hager. According to Brian Boe, the excavator he was using to upgrade the road shifted forward in soft gravel and damaged Smith and Hager's telephone line.
"Then all hell broke loose" with the neighbors, he said.
The disagreement escalated and Lake County Sheriff's deputies were dispatched to the scene on April 7, when Brian Boe was arrested for criminal mischief and disorderly conduct.
"I admit I lost my temper with those people, but it's my livelihood we're talking about here," Boe said.
Boe said he and his brother have not been able to further improve the steep road and say it's impassable for vehicles.
"We've harvested a crop every year here for 17 years," he said. "I get great comments where we take our cherries, and I'm proud of our loyal customers. They'll miss out this year."
The Boes are fourth-generation Montana/North Dakota farmers and have been farming in the Flathead Valley since 1990.
SCOTT SMITH has a very different version of what happened.
He said Boe caused a minimum of $6,000 in damage to CenturyTel equipment when he was excavating the road. When Smith called authorities to report the damage, he maintains Boe became "very belligerent" and then ripped up two of Smith's trees in full view of the sheriff's deputies.
At that point Boe was arrested.
Boe said Tuesday that he has a bill for $3,700 for damage to four service phone lines and three poles, and also has been billed $1,300 by Smith to cover the tree damage.
The Boes have a 30-foot easement across the property but had encroached on Smith and Hager's property, Smith said.
"In no way am I stopping them from using the easement," Smith said. "They have the legal right to use it."
Smith, a Flathead native and professional road builder for 25 years, said he hired a surveyor to survey the easement and then restored the road damage.
The Boes' tractor, purportedly mired in gravel, is just a ploy to gain public sympathy, Smith claimed.
Smith maintained the road to the orchard is passable.
As the relationship between the neighbors deteriorated, Smith had a temporary restraining order placed on both brothers. Brad Boe was arrested in mid-June for violating the restraining order after he allegedly tampered with fence line and survey stakes.
SMITH ALSO filed a complaint with the state Department of Agriculture, claiming the Boes oversprayed insecticide on their cherry trees.
The complaint will be forwarded to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for review because the Boes' property is on the Flathead Indian Reservation, said Leonard Berry, state pesticide program manager.
The state assisted by collecting samples and analyzing them, but "nothing is conclusive," Berry said.
"It's really early into the investigation," he added.
Cherry growers typically adhere to a strict spraying regimen imposed by commercial purchasers.
"They're all using the same chemicals. Air-blast sprayers blast it everywhere," Berry said, explaining it's not uncommon for spray to cross property lines.
Smith hopes the road issue can be resolved peacefully.
"I didn't want a feud," he said. "I just want to live in peace with these guys."
Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com