North Fork Road really a true jewel

To the editor,

Make the Best Place Better.

Columbia Falls has a jewel up Nucleus Avenue. No it's not the community organizers running the Last Best Place, it's called the North Fork Road. This road follows the river at times and has some of the best access in the Flathead Valley. There are three or four great boat accesses and you can enter the park on a couple of roads.

With all this access it sees quite a bit of use, particularly between Columbia Falls and Big Creek. Use of this road is probably up 10-fold in the last 15 years. More people are discovering the North Fork. With all the public boat launches and other access the dust is becoming very much a health issue.

Last Saturday the county was implementing their solution. They had a sheriff's deputy sitting at McGinnis Creek most of the day. Sadly the dust was still in the air, it didn't work that well. This is not the first time they've tried to keep the dust down in this fashion.

I can understand the people in Polbridge not wanting the road paved but at the very least it should be paved to the park entrance near Big Creek. While they are paving this section it would be great if we had a bike path along side of it. People would come from all over to bike the trail. The state already has room to put the bike trail in so permits and red tape should not be a problem. Also you're building it along a highway — not in someone's back yard. I really believe it would help Columbia Falls and main street.

Let's hope we don't park a deputy up there full time because the people on the river can still see and breathe the dust with this approach.

One more thought on the sheriff issue. If they were going to park someone somewhere, maybe they should try up the canyon or the east side of Columbia Falls so they won't have to come speeding through our town with lights and sirens going three or four times a day like they have been doing.

Kevin Ramage

East Columbia Falls