Funding available for path completion

It seems that every day brings more

traffic onto Montana roads.

This traffic is not just the

stereotypical sport-utility vehicle anymore — it is bicycles,

side-by-side four-wheelers, dirt bikes, horses and with the change

of seasons, cross-country skis and snowmobiles.

For the residents of the Echo Lake and

Swan Hill area Highway 83 has become too busy for many of these

evolving modes of travel, especially when it involves a child’s

safety and a parent’s trust.

Swan River Road has become a favorite

alternative for all types of vehicles to travel from Montana

Highway 83 to downtown Bigfork. Those on non-motorized

transportation often connect by way of the Swan River Nature

Trail.

Over the past several years effected

area residents, Flathead County and the Bigfork chapter of Rotary

International have cooperated to use private funds to garner

matching federal funds to create a path that currently parallels

Echo Lake Road, crossing Highway 83 and continuing south onto Swan

River Road for about one mile before terminating.

The local Rotary group has submitted an

application to the county to aid in connecting the existing path

along the east side of the road to the Swan River Nature Trail.

Roadside paths are becoming a popular

solution for people who enjoy human-fueled and other alternative

travel types to stay off of busy roads and give all a measure of

added safety.

In the first of several public comment

meetings — residents, county planning officials and Bigfork Rotary

members met last Tuesday at the Swan River School library to listen

to the proposal and have a forum to voice praise or concern.

The current proposal is to connect the

existing roadside path from Lee Road to Williams Lane, both of

which intersect with Swan River Road. The project would use federal

and private funding to construct the path on public property within

the Flathead County easement off Swan River Road. Part of the

application process for the path is to include public comment to

see if the project has support from those impacted homeowners.

Area Rotarians have not only committed

themselves fiscally to this project, they have diligently poured in

hours of construction and sweat to a section of the Swan River Road

path. This diligence has earned the Rotary project a “memorandum of

understanding” with the county, meaning that the prior Rotary work

will be honored and accepted into the proposal.

Nancy O’Kelly, Bigfork Rotary

president-elect, said they had raised $13,500 already.

“Support is awareness,” O’Kelly said,

adding that she hopes the groups work in unison to make the paths a

safe place, as well as maintaining the natural aesthetics of the

area.

The Community Transportation

Enhancement Proposal, CTEP, is a federal program that provides 87

percent of the funding for projects like the Swan River Road path

and require the remaining 13 percent to come from private

funds.

According to Alex Hogle, Flathead

County CTEP coordinator, the county has no general funding for such

paths. However, he said the county handles the paperwork and acts

as an intermediary between the applicants, the residents and the

state.

The bureaucratic structuring funnels

CTEP funding from federal to state. Once the state receives these

monies they distribute the funds to a county level based on

population.

The current Swan River Road path

proposal has two priority levels, the first connecting the existing

path from Lee Road to the Rotary section. The second priority would

proceed from the completed Rotary section to Williams Lane. These

two priorities would still leave the path a couple miles short of

the Swan River Nature Trail. The concern with CTEP funding, or the

future lack thereof, is that it is one of the programs on the

federal budget chopping block.

Although neither actual design, nor

surveying, has taken place for these potential phases, the plan is

to parallel the road staying within the county easement and off of

private property.

Hogle estimates early figures for the

project to be less than $400,000, which he believes will complete

all phases of priority one and the design phase of the second.

The county is willing to allocate

$300,000 of CTEP funds to the project, which leaves roughly $40,000

for Rotary. An additional 10 percent of the total budget tallied in

the application is designated to administrative costs.

Some of the concerns raised by

landowners along Swan River Road are in regards to the path’s

ability to stay on public land, driveway crossings, liabilities if

an accident occurs and maintenance of the trail after

construction.

“The inherently awkward thing about

this program (CTEP) is that specifics come after the agreement,”

Hogle said, continuing that the proposal currently would effect 33

properties and there is no way to know the final path placement

before the funding is in place.

In terms of future maintenance, Hogle

said it relies on volunteerism essentially.

He did, however, include that even if

the project is accepted, it only takes one resident’s lack of

compliance to halt it. Hogle also reassured impacted homeowners

that no land condemnation happens in the CTEP process, and no

changes to private property are made without prior consent. There

are also specifics within the CTEP budget that allow for the

resetting of fences or other infrastructure as an “allowable

cost.”

At the current rate, Hogle expects a

finalized application to be in front of the Flathead County Board

of Commissioners within a couple of weeks, and a project agreement

by next spring. Design and scoping would take place in 2012, with

actual construction completion before the winter of 2013.

Currently Rotary has a private donor

willing to match 100 percent of any donations given up to $1,000

and will honor this until Dec. 25. For more Rotary information call

837-5888.