Kathy Parker — Spavinaw resident Kim Oswald doesn’t want to be fenced in - or out.

Oswald said recently the City of Tulsa has been fencing along the water main that carries water from Lake Spavinaw to Tulsa.

That’s true, according to Bob Bledsoe of Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor’s office, but it’s not new.

Oswald is concerned that fencing the water line will carve property into pieces, dividing livestock from water, feed and their barns. In fact, Oswald said the water line fence will land lock much of her property.

“People who don’t live in the country don’t understand what it means to have a fence put across the middle of your property,” Oswald said.

Bledsoe said in cases where property is divided, the city of Tulsa provides a gate. “I can name you several cases where cross gates were built at Tulsa’s expense.

“We have been fencing the water line for years,” Bledsoe said. “The city of Tulsa bought the land over 80 years ago. It’s not an easement. I believe it’s about 100 feet (wide).

“We have allowed landowners to use the land as long as they didn’t encroach on it. Now there are several places where barns have been built on the water lines and trailer houses have been set on it.

“This is not a new thing,” Bledsoe said, continuing that short stretches of fence are built along the water line all the time and have been since the 1920’s. Bledsoe said there is no capitol project nor money set aside to build a fence from Spavinaw to Tulsa (68 miles). Short stretches of fence are built periodically.

“It’s the city’s property, and in most cases it was bought before the current landowners were there,” Bledsoe said.

Oswald questioned how a fence could be built with no survey. Bledsoe said the city of Tulsa has a full-time survey crew on staff. In fact, he said one person made a full-time job of surveying the water line.

Oswald said Jim Kondos, a flowline supervisor for Tulsa, came to her home and told her the fence was going up and there was nothing she could do about it.

“I told him nobody would’ve sold land to be fenced off from them. He asked if we had a paper to prove that,” Oswald said.

Bledsoe said sometimes landowners want Tulsa to build the fence to establish the property lines. Regardless of the feelings of the residents, the fact remains that Tulsa owns the land and has the right to fence it.