FRISCO — A Summit County man was cited after creating his own roadblock on Quandary Road last month, allegedly hoping to keep drunken drivers from “ripping up and down the road.”
At about 10:35 a.m. Sept. 16, a deputy with the Summit County Sheriff’s Office responded to an online tip from two days earlier detailing a number of logs and boulders blocking sections of Quandary Road in unincorporated Summit County south of Blue River, according to a case report from the Sheriff’s Office.
The small road is a summertime only route that narrows to one lane for a short section adjacent to Lodge by the Blue.
When responding, the deputy tried to access Quandary Road from Lodge by the Blue to the north, according to the report, and quickly reached a roadblock. The deputy noted there were two logs — about 12 inches in diameter — across the width of the roadway. There also were two more logs in the roadway along with six “very large” boulders blocking the way for any vehicle or bicycle traffic.
The deputy then went back around to the other side of Quandary Road via Colorado Highway 9, where the deputy contacted a 47-year-old man who lives along the road.
According to the report, the man was “heated” during the discussion and repeatedly voiced a distaste and mistrust of police officers. He told the deputy that he moved rocks and logs from his property onto the road to prevent drunken drivers from driving through. The deputy reported the man seemed inebriated himself, with glassy and bloodshot eyes and a strong odor of alcohol.
The man refused to remove the roadblock, claiming he had a meeting with residents in the area who agreed to block the roadway. He also said he had a friend assist him in building the roadblock with heavy equipment and said the materials were too big for him to move alone.
When asked if he would arrange to have his friend return to help remove the roadblock, the man again refused, according to the report. He claimed that the road was part of his property and that he was working with a lawyer to refute the public’s access to the road.
The deputy then showed the man maps outlining the existing roadway, noting his property line was barely into the edge of the road.
The deputy informed the man that Quandary was a designated county road and that he wasn’t allowed to block the road with anything. The deputy issued a summons on the charge of obstructing the highway, a misdemeanor.
Deputies returned Sept. 18 along with assistance from the Blue River Police Department and the county’s Public Works Department to remove the roadblock. According to the report, the man was “very angry” with police and county workers who arrived to remove the roadblock, claiming they were all trespassing.
Officers said that the conversation went in circles and that once the county workers were finished removing the obstructions, the man told officers he planned to call 911 every time someone used the road. Officers informed him that he could be charged with misuse of the 911 system if he acted on his plan.