Summer's here; I know, I itch
I've considered writing this column for a few weeks now, but was hesitant that declaring the hot season was here would jinx the whole outfit.
How do I know it's finally summer, you ask? Because last weekend I played a round of golf and walked " briefly " near the shore of Flathead Lake to launch a canoe and I look like I have a pox. Yes, the mosquitos have landed, and they've done so in great numbers.
A native of the South, I'm well aquatinted with all manner of itching, biting pests. I was once bitten by mosquitos and chiggers while standing in a poison ivy patch. Not something they tell you about in the Arkansas tourist guide.
But here in Montana, what the mosquitos lack in size " I'll swear to having seen the biting bugs as big as sparrows " they make up for in sheer numbers.
On a particularly ill-conceived hike with a girl I didn't know all that well up Cha-paa-qn (formerly Squaw Peak) in Missoula, my white, long-sleeved hiking shirt was flecked with red from all the bites I received through it. Playing a game of ultimate Frisbee along the Missouri River in Great Falls there were so many bites on my ankles they merged into what could be called an uber-bite.
In short, this weekend's outbreak of one of civilization's scourges mean that summer is here at last.
Neighborhood plan confusion
Last week the Flathead County Planning Board made what is " to be honest " a bit of a confusing decision regarding the interpretation of a Montana Supreme Court case that muddies the water around neighborhood plans.
The court treated them as a regulatory document in a decision in January concerning a gravel pit in West Valley near Kalispell. That was news for Flathead officials, who thought they'd been clear over the years that neighborhood plans were not regulatory, only guides which could influence later regulatory measures.
Now, outdated neighborhood plans have until Jan. 1, 2010 to be updated to adhere to the new Flathead County Growth Policy, which will explicitly make them non-regulatory.
What this means for Bigfork's plan is anyone's guess, though the Planning Board and the Bigfork Steering Committee and Bigfork Land Use Advisory Committee sat down for a workshop on Wednesday night, June 25, the results of which will be in next week's Eagle.
Through multiple meetings with the community, planning office staff made it clear to Bigfork that anything in the plan more restrictive than county regulations was merely a recommendation, but other communities around the Flathead believe their plans to be regulatory.
As the debate continues over these neither-here-nor-there documents, expect Bigfork to be in the eye of the storm, and hope that three years of work haven't been for nothing.
Alex Strickland