Stormwater project deserves county support

You learn so many wonderful things watching YouTube. Things you might not otherwise know, such as PooPouri, a product that is sprayed on WC water before, well, you know, and it somehow makes the room smell like roses. Or citrus. Or whatever.

I’m thinking maybe this is what the county commissioners think we need for Bigfork Bay: something that will just take care of itself with not much work.

But taking care of Flathead Lake is not going to be easy. As Jack Stanford, whom I choose as one of the most brilliant people on the planet for his work on freshwater lakes, said last week, Flathead Lake faces several challenges from the human factor.

Challenges we can choose to address, or avoid.

Once again, the commissioners seem to be kicking the can down the road by not buying in to the Bigfork Stormwater Advisory Committee’s plan to create a tax district to help pay for stormwater improvements around Bigfork.

The improvements are meant to help protect the county’s most important natural resource: Flathead Lake. No, not Glacier National Park. Flathead Lake.

The money paid by Flathead lakeshore residents generates real revenue that the county uses for schools, roads, law enforcement and sanitation. Oh, and commissioners’ salaries. The taxes generated by lakefront property pay more than their fair share of county government. And another $15 spread out among 3,000 parcels is a TINY price to pay for construction of the Bigfork stormwater project.

But the commissioners balked.

The commissioners on Monday chose to make the boundaries for the stormwater project much smaller, which puts the tax burden on a smaller portion of the population. This increases the price, and the likelihood that residents will not vote for such a special-improvement district.

The commissioners and the solid waste board decided recently to create a tax district that would increase taxes on homeowners about $30 a year so Bigfork can maintain its own trash-collection site.

The solid waste district will move forward with its plan to build a trash site in Bigfork. There will be public comment, but no vote. Why couldn’t a similar process be taken with the stormwater project? It’s just as important — or more — as building a green-box site.

I‘ve never sat in the commissioners’ chair. I don’t know what forces of public opinion they face, but I can’t imagine a single person in Flathead County who could be against keeping Flathead Lake pristine for the cost of a 30-pack.

I sometimes get the feeling the commissioners just wish Bigfork would go away; that we’d stop pestering them with this new project, or that new idea to make life better in south Flathead County.

I don’t blame the commissioners for wanting to keep taxes down. Sure, it makes good fiscal sense to live within your means. It’s like driving a car that’s paid for. But at some point, you have to decide whether it makes more sense to keeping putting oil in the engine, or get the engine fixed. We need to invest in the future of our natural resources and make the hard decisions required of that.

It’s time our local political leaders (and I use that term loosely) take a leadership role in county issues, instead of kicking the can down the road for the next commission to address.

Bigfork residents, I’ve learned, do not take defeat lightly. The stormwater issue and the people behind it are not going to go away.

— David Reese