Years of friction between Marshall-Petaluma Road rancher Alvin Gambonini and Marin Municipal Water District, which owns the Soulajule Reservoir next to his property, climaxed Friday in small-claims court.

At issue were two incidents last year when Gambonini, 75, obstructed Marin Municipal's road across his ranch to the reservoir.

In May, the plucky rancher parked a truck and cattle trailer on the access road, delaying a contractor and allegedly costing the district $686. In July, he dumped debris on one of the road's cattle guards. Marin Municipal claims it cost the district $206 to clean up the cattle guard.

Representing himself in court, Gambonini on Friday told Court Commissioner Harvey Goldfine he obstructed the road both times in an attempt to make Marin Municipal remove the cattle guard, which has injured two of his cattle, and to pay for damage to his vehicles caused by a two-year-old MMWD bridge.

Goldfine, who had spent Friday morning trying landlord-tenant and unpaid-bill disputes, seemed to enjoy the non-routine hearing. When it was over, he remarked: "It sounds like an interesting case." Goldfine will review the case further before rendering a decision.

Representing the water district were senior engineer Tom Frisher, chief ranger Casey May, and accountant Elizabeth Murata.

Gambonini later told The Light he parked a pickup truck and a trailer on the access road to block trucks. According to the district, the trucks were delivering boulders to a pool at the bottom of the spillway in order to repair storm damage.

Explaining his actions, Gambonini told Commissioner Goldfine that service trucks had driven by the previous day - with no warning - creating "a racket" and so much dust "you couldn't see."

That day, Gambonini said later in an interview, he warned the district not to come back. When more trucks nonetheless arrived, they could not reach the reservoir.

"It's all their fault," Gambonini said, adding that he blocked the trucks because the district would not reimburse him for damage to his truck and trailer.

He said he had popped two tires and lost the back axle of his trailer when he tried to cross MMWD's new bridge over Arroyo Sausal to feed his cattle.

Gambonini claims the one-lane bridge is too narrow for trucks to negotiate a turn onto the bridge.

"It's narrow," Frisher acknowledged to The Light. But the district did not need to build a two-lane bridge, which would have been extravagantly expensive, he said. "It's not a highway."

The modular bridge cost $277,222, Frisher noted.

Gambonini also told The Light the district should have built the bridge further upstream where a previous bridge had spanned the tributary of Walker Creek.

"We decided against it," Frisher responded, adding that Gambonini would not have sold the necessary easement.

Gambonini, however, insisted he would have sold MMWD an easement for a bridge upstream.

The district last year offered to buy a new easement "to widen the approach road" at the present bridge so large trucks could negotiate the turn. The proposed easement would have been 200 feet by 50 feet. Gambonini, however, doesn't think the district needs that large an area, and so far, the district has not bought the easement.

As to the second incident, Gambonini told the court he filled in a portion of the guard with debris because a calf and a bull hurt themselves walking over it. The rails are too far apart, he explained later in an interview.

Moreover, there was still plenty of room for the vehicles to drive over the cattle guard, he claimed, since only a four-foot-wide area had been filled.

Ranger May, however, countered that AT&T employees also had trouble driving over the cattle guard after the dumping. The district has a 20-foot-wide easement and vehicles have the right to travel the road unimpeded, he said.

Loral Skynet, a New York-based company, bought AT&T's "Three Peaks" station earlier this year. Manager John Hewitt, who agreed the bridge is narrow, said eight employees work at the station.

Marin Municipal and Loral Skynet both use and share the cost of maintaining it. Marin Municipal, which houses a ranger near the reservoir, supervises all work on the road and bridge.

After the hearing, Gambonini said he is confident the court will rule in his favor.