Lakeside Community Council makes revisions to by-laws

The Lakeside Community Council unanimously adopted a number of revisions to its by-laws at its meeting last week.

Three council members met as a subcommittee to review the bylaws and make any revision recommendations to the full council.

The next step for the revisions will be to go to the Flathead County Attorney's Office for review.

"Most of the changes were basically housekeeping," council member Gene Shellerud said.

These changes included defining that the council's area of coverage is the same as the geographical area covered by the planning area of the Lakeside Neighborhood Plan. That puts the boundaries at Spring Creek Road to the north, the Lake County border to the south, the shoreline of Flathead Lake to the east and the U.S. Forest Service lands to the west.

The revisions also involved clarifying the council's meeting time as the last Tuesday of each month not the third Tuesday as the by-laws previously stated and the terms of council members to what has been practiced — staggered three-year terms. The original by-laws had defined three-year, two-year and one-year terms for an initial election.

The subcommittee also updated the order of business and included agenda approval and the passing of the sign-in sheet.

Further changes were made in the council's code of ethics to clean up language in the conflict of interest section. The section states that it is up to the council member to express a conflict of interest and then up to the council to decide whether the member has such a conflict. The member can determine whether or not to accept the council's decision. If he or she has a conflict of interest, that person can participate in discussion as a member of the public but not in the vote.

Council member Barb Miller said she was most concerned about the language in this section, saying she wasn't sure it was clear.

"Every time I read it, I'm not so sure," Miller said.

Other council members said it was clear and the wording was left as proposed.

The revised by-laws also include a map of the council's coverage area, which was not included with the by-laws currently filed with the county, Miller said.

TRAIL PROPOSAL

The Flathead County Commissioners will again consider projects proposed to receive funding from Community Transportation Enhancement Program money today, including a possible walk/bike trail along Blacktail Road in Lakeside, Miller told the council.

The council approved the application, prepared by resident Debbie Spaulding, for the funds in its May meeting and submitted it to the Flathead County Planning & Zoning Department for consideration. The one-mile path would stretch from Youth With A Mission to Stoner Creek Loop.

The project is competing for funds against two other projects, the Historic Red Bridge in Columbia Falls and a Swan River trail.

Miller reported that the evaluation committee for the funds recommended the money be split between the Blacktail and Swan River projects.

The commissioners considered the recommendation in early July and opted to continue the discussion and decision to a later date, Aug. 4. The meeting is on the agenda for 9:30 a.m.

The key purpose of the Blacktail trail is to ease safety concerns, according to the application.

"By current county standards, Blacktail Road is considered sub-standard at 23-feet wide, leaving no room for people to walk or ride bikes without being in the line of vehicle traffic," Spaulding wrote in the application letter.

She wrote that it is especially concerning considering that YWAM averages more than 100 students per quarter who usually do not have vehicles and use Blacktail Road for walking to downtown Lakeside as do the families that live in the surrounding area.

"Year round, not a day will go by without multiple car and pedestrian confrontations along this section of Blacktail Road. It is only a matter of time before an accident will occur," she wrote.

The trail will also link users to Ben Williams Park. Spaulding's letter cites information from the proposed Lakeside Neighborhood Plan revision's survey that supports the need for paths in the community.

Fourty-four percent of respondents expressed walking and biking as a mode of their transportation.

If accepted, Lakeside would be responsible for about 14 percent of the overall cost of the trail. Spaulding estimated the entire project may cost roughly $400,000 based on other recently completed trail projects.

NEIGHBORHOOD PLAN

A public hearing before the Flathead County Planning Board on the Lakeside Neighborhood Plan has been scheduled for 6 p.m. Sept. 15 in the Earl Bennett Building in Kalispell.

The council has been distributing a four-page summary of the 185-page plan document and did so at the Lakeside Community Fair earlier in July.

The summary includes details on the history and purpose of the plan as well as key concepts and recommendations in the plan, principles used by the plan committee in developing land-use designations and the actual designations themselves.

That summary, as well as the full plan, is available online at http://lakesideplan2008.com.