CLE ELUM -- A rural Kittitas County fire district is suing the U.S. Forest Service a second time over access to its mountain station when it is cut off by snow in the winter.

Kittitas Fire District 8 is asking a U.S. District Court judge in Yakima to allow it to plow a 1,500-foot stretch of road leading to its station. The station is just uphill from the Crystal Springs Sno-Park about 22 miles west of Cle Elum.

"We've been so mistreated by the Forest Service and their actions," said Robert Angrisano, a fire commissioner and volunteer firefighter.

Nancy Jones, a spokeswoman with the Cle Elum Ranger District, said Forest Service officials would not discuss the issue on advice of their attorneys.

The debate goes back to 2005, when the all-volunteer district built the station along Forest Road 54, aka Stampede Pass Road.

Firefighters and emergency medical technicians use the facility to respond to fires, collisions on nearby Interstate 90 and emergencies involving snowmobiling and other winter recreation.

However, the Cle Elum District maintains the area as a system of groomed recreational trails and closes Stampede Pass Road in the winter. Forest Service officials, backed by recreation enthusiasts, said that mixing full-size vehicles and snowmobiles would be unsafe.

Accordingly, they don't allow the road to be plowed.