Douglas County commissioners continue to mediate a dispute between neighbors who remain separated by more than the two lanes of Wellman Road north of Lawrence.

Monday morning, commissioners met with their attorney for 45 minutes behind closed doors to mull options for handling a disagreement between the owners of an excavating operation and nearby residents.

Wayne Ousdahl, who runs the Ousdahl Excavating site on behalf of his mother, maintains that his family’s soil-removal business just south of the county line is legal because it was established in 1951 Â 15 years before the county adopted zoning regulations that require special permits for such uses.

But several neighbors  led by Bruce Reid, whose house oversees the site from the east side of Wellman Road  argue the site causes too much traffic, noise and other nuisances to justify its existence, no matter what the regulations say.

Commissioners didn’t find a solution during their executive session, but they agreed to have county officials work with the parties to see what, if anything, could be done to avoid future problems.

If the county’s own officials working on the case  Craig Weinaug, county administrator, and Keith Dabney, director of zoning and codes  can’t convince the two sides to find common ground, the next step would be bringing in an impartial mediator, Commissioner Bob Johnson said.

“If that doesn’t work, we’re probably at litigation,” Johnson said after the meeting. “I, for one, am not interested in spending county money  taxpayers’ money  to pursue litigation unless we have a really strong case and a high probability of winning.”

Commissioners have said both sides would be taking their chances in court. The Ousdahl family would risk losing its ability to haul dirt, while the neighbors would risk the possibility of the county losing any ability to regulate operations on the site.

In other action Monday, commissioners:

 Appointed Paula Phillips, the county’s emergency management director, to oversee spending of $50,000 of federal money to acquire equipment that would be used to respond to acts of terrorism.

 Agreed to allow use of shared access points along county roads.

 Approved a revised site plan for Heritage Baptist Church, to be located southwest of North 1800 and East 800 roads.

 Approved next year’s $279,413 budget for community corrections.

 Agreed to transfer ownership of a lot in East Hills Business Park from the county to Douglas County Development Inc., which is constructing a speculative building.