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.