Dayton Chronicle - Your Hometown News Source

DAYTON–A formal complaint was given by Alicia Adkins to the Board of Columbia County Commissioners in regards to alleged mistreatment of some of the children, including her own, boarding their horses at the fairgrounds by another boarder, Lee Ann Literal, who is in an active leadership role at the fairgrounds and in 4-H.

The alleged matter was addressed by the County Commissioners, along with complainant Adkins and Micki Marll, supported by 4-H leader Shelli Bryant and boarder Dawn Rodriguez, during the BOCC’s most recent Work Session.

According to Adkin’s complaint, there are several parents who board their children’s horses who have allegedly witnessed inappropriate and unpleasant comments made by Literal directly to the children, even those known to have special needs. Adkin’s indicated she attempted to address the issue with Literal but it became heated.

Adkins’ complaint contained details of another boarder, the minor child of Micki Marll, who alleged “At one point before the 2020 Open Equine Horse Show, Literal was heard screaming at another child with special needs, Marll’s child, about how that child needed to get out of the round pen so the group could use the round pen.”

The complaint indicated Marll allegedly went to Literal after hearing her screaming at her child and asked her to come to her when dealing with her child. Marll stated she had already made arrangements with another child that was in Literal’s group.

According to Marll, her child has since quit Literal’s horse group but continues to board and exercise the horse at the fairgrounds.

County Commissioners Chuck Amerein, Ryan Rundell and Mike Talbott have taken the position that running the stalls is the job of the County. Amerein claimed the situation is one of “adults not getting along” and is based on hearsay without proof. He spoke of other reported complaints from some of the other boarders and claimed to “see the bigger picture.” However, the Commissioners agreed they didn’t want to ignore the issue.

Other discussion revealed tension among boarders because of lack of proper maintenance and consideration by boarders in the horse-use areas. Amerein attempted to resolve the situation by suggesting to hold a boarder’s meeting. That idea was not supported by the attending boarders because they recently held a meeting and experienced no improvement.

Amerein then suggested setting up a schedule for boarders to use the facilities, but that was not accepted either. He then stated the use of facilities privileges would be suspended including taking down pens and corrals for one month. Any further conflict will result in stall rental suspension.

The attending complainants believed this action would punish all the boarders unnecessarily, including the kids subject to the alleged mistreatment. According to Marll, most of the 15 stalls are used by children.

The boarders asked that the County not take away the privileges and discussed going through the 4-H WSU Extension Office even though they viewed this as more than a 4-H issue since some of the alleged incidents occurred outside of 4-H events.

Additionally, 4-H is on-hold right now due to COVID-19. Both Rundell and County Prosecutor Dale Slack affirmed that this could be the path to achieve resolution.

Amerein has since scheduled a Boarder’s Meeting for October 6.