The progression of the Shepherd Gravel Pit construction has slowed, but relationships are still strained as a lawsuit between the Flanns and the Donneses is coming to fruition. “We have remained silent in the hopes that truth will come out,” stated Jamie (Donnes) Hass, “but we don’t feel that it really has.”
“We want to tell our half of everything,” stated Jamie Hass. Jamie and her husband Mike stated that there were facets of what was covered in the court documents that were simply not true. In reference to the drainage canal that had been dug, Mr. Hass commented that, “this (the canal) was to de-water that field so that we could farm the property, and we drained it around the outside so that we don’t flood the field. And just to be very transparent on things, this water (in the canal) is what the lawsuit is all about.”
“And people want to know everything,” added Mrs. Hass. “So, we have had people flying drones over our property. They’ll also just hop over the fence to snap pictures of everything even though we have ‘No Trespassing’ signs.”
“The court documents said that there was whitewater running,” commented Mr. Hass, “and that is simply not true.” They continued to say that even with record-setting rainfall and neighbors irrigating, the water simply couldn’t flow with enough force to cause whitewater to form.
“The court has also confirmed that they were wrong in stating that there were two, maybe three, trenches that had been dug,” said Mrs. Hass. “There’s only one. And the court documents say that we could fill ninety-two swimming pools per day with the water flow out of here, but those are the small fifteen foot by four foot above ground pools. If it were to be an Olympic size pool for instance, it would take two days to fill.”
“Where it says in the documents that the trench is around twelve feet deep, that’s on the deepest part,” added Mrs. Hass. “Water will self-regulate, so as our property slopes down, the trench becomes more and more shallow.”
“Because if you think about it,” continued Mr. Hass, “if the trench was dug at the same depth from ground level across a slope, the water wouldn’t flow through it. We had to dig the trench according to the water level, so that’s why you can see the difference in depth.”
