MONUMENT Roy Peterson has notified the newly formed Monument Rural Fire Protection District board and fire chief that he intends to sue them for a litany of alleged bad acts.

In a May 20 notice of tort claim, Petersons Portland attorney, Brett J. Hall, asks the fire board, the Oregon State Department of Forestry, and Jeremy Boyer, the new districts fire chief, to cease and desist what is described as a campaign of harassment.

A tort claim notice is not a lawsuit but a statement telling a public agency that someone believes they have reason to file a lawsuit and intends to do so.

Halls letter cites several possible causes for a lawsuit, including slander, libel, breach of contract, negligence, harassment, and unlawful prosecution.

The new board also faces a public records request from Peterson. In a June 6 letter to the fire board and chief, Hall asked for all of the boards records, including but not limited to board notes, minutes, emails and/or letters between board members and any outside individual or entity whether governmental or private, and any other records.

Bruce Strange, chair of the five-member rural fire board, said he could not comment on the tort notice, and that the district is referring such matters to its attorney. As of Monday, he said he had not received the June 6 records request.

However, he said the district is moving ahead to gear up for its first fire season.

The people in the district right now have fire protection, he said.

The district has two engines. One was donated by the Cloverdale Fire District, whose chief, Thad Olsen, has relatives in the Monument area. Cloverdale also has pledged nearly $10,000 in hoses, nozzles, turnouts and other gear for the new district.

Its sort of like an adoption, Strange said.

The district also has received an engine from the Prairie City Rural Fire District, although it is not yet in service.

Strange said the rural district is going to operate in cooperation with Monuments city fire department through a mutual aid agreement. Boyer is the fire chief for both departments.

The rural fire district was formed to provide structure protection only. Landowners already pay fire patrol assessments with their property taxes for non-structure fire protection through Oregon Department of Forestry.

Petersons tort notice is the latest chapter in the contentious efforts to establish rural fire protection in the Monument area, which has been the site of several severe wildfires in recent years.

Peterson over the past decade has advocated the formation of a rural fire district in the area. The letter from Hall notes his efforts to obtain grants for fire equipment for a rural district.

Despite the fact that the district boundaries established by a citizen petition last fall and county action dont include the property where Peterson lives, he has been following the districts development.

Halls letter says Peterson found the board members who took office last fall held unlawful, private meetings. Peterson alleges the unlawful meetings continued even after the initial board resigned en masse reportedly amid disputes with Peterson and the members were replaced by the County Court and subsequent election by the district residents.

Hall contends that when Peterson raised concerns, the board began a campaign of retaliation against him.

This included demands that he return the equipment and machines that he had invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in, accusing him of theft, initiating multiple criminal investigations, and a general continuing campaign of harassment, Hall wrote.

Hall last week also released an April 25 letter from Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer to Doug Decker, state forester for the Oregon Department of Forestry.

Palmer said that starting in 2010, he had been investigating an alleged criminal case between the city of Monument and the rural fire district over equipment obtained legally and lawfully through ODF by Peterson.

He said there was a dispute as to who lawfully owned what equipment and how some of the funding was channeled through the Citys Federal Tax ID number and their (Dun & Bradstreet number).

He said District Attorney Ryan Joslin had informed the parties that the issue was a civil matter.

Palmers letter said that since then, the new rural board and one county commissioner began raising questions about the equipment.

As of this point, their investigation running alongside of a criminal investigation is not good, he said. They lack jurisdiction and they lack authority to investigate this issue.

Palmers letter indicated the current board believes that since the equipment was procured with grants in the name of Monument Rural Fire District, it should go to them. However, he said the grantee Peterson obtained equipment legally and still possesses it, in light of the Grantee not having anything to do with the Monument Rural Fire District.

He also said the equipment is on private property, and he lacks legal authority to go there. He said there is no probable cause that a crime has been committed, nor justification for a search warrant.

He said he would get that authority only if the fire board sued Peterson and got a court order to take possession of the equipment.

As it stands right now I do not have enough evidence, nor do I believe I have the authority to intervene in this dispute, Palmer wrote.