Looking back at a year on the West Shore

This week residents will say goodbye to 2009 and hello to a new year.

As locals prepare to move forward, the West Shore News is taking a look back to give you snapshot of the year and what's to come.

In January, District Court Judge Ted Lympus ruled that three Lakeside condominium projects totaling about 600 units were correctly required to submit to the subdivision review process because they fail to meet the exemption requirements. Jim and Beverly Etzler, Dennis and Donna Thornton and the Blomgren Family Trust sued the county after officials told the Clerk and Recorder's Office not to accept deeds for the condo developments and posted a reminder notice in order to prevent construction of the projects until they had obtained subdivision approval. That district court decision was upheld in November on appeal to the Montana Supreme Court.

In February, the so-called "village bill," which proposed creating a middle ground form of government to bridge the gap between unincorporated and incorporated communities, was tabled in the 2009 Montana Legislative Session less than two days after it was introduced on Feb. 16, without any serious discussion. The bill had been supported by the Lakeside and Bigfork communities.

In the spring, this newspaper launched its Web site, www.westshorenewsonline.com, at which residents can find recent articles and updated about the West Shore community.

In March, the third Montana Highway Patrol trooper in 18 months died after being in a head-on crash while on duty north of Somers.

Trooper Mike Haynes, 28, died at Kalispell Regional Medical Center from injuries suffered in the crash on U.S. Highway 93 north of Somers.Haynes was also the School Resource Officer at Somers Middle and Lakeside Elementary Schools.

The driver, 29-year-old Travis Vandersloot, died at the scene and was later found to have been under the influence of alcohol at the time of the crash.

Deer Creek residents and those who travel Highway 93 between Somers and Lakeside were shocked in April to find heavy equipment busily clearing a 6.5-acre parcel just north of Deer Creek Road. The property, which formerly belonged to local business partners Earl Bach and Michael Murphy, sold to STORE-IT, LLC, a company out of Huntington Beach, Calif.

In 2009, the Lakeside Neighborhood Plan Committee moved closer to finishing a draft revision of the neighborhood plan.The revised plan was presented to the Lakeside Community Council in May, but later came under fire over a members-only Yahoo Web site the committee used as the planning process progressed. The site was shut down in June by the county attorney.

A group of Lakeside and Somers property owners still have a pending lawsuit and request for an injunction to stop the plan filed in the Flathead District Court. A hearing on the suit has been continued pending an investigation of the Lakeside plan and the process under which it was developed. The investigation is still ongoing. This suit also seeks to stop the Somers Neighborhood Plan. Efforts to establish a Somers plan emerged again this year, but were later put on hold.

The Lakeside Community Council voted to send the plan update on to the Flathead County Planning Board to begin the next phase in the revision process later this summer. The board sent the committee back to work on the plan with more than 50 revisions, which including items as small as formatting and as large as a new type of zoning to consider.

In the meantime, developers for Eagle's Crest, also known as the Lakeside Club, withdrew their preliminary plat application for Eagle's Crest Subdivision phases 5-9.

The subdivision, located one mile south of Lakeside, had come under fire in a lawsuit filed by the Flathead Lake Protection Association which challenged the commissioners' approval of the preliminary plat.

This sent the plan committee through more than a month's worth of meetings about possibly changing the designation for those phases on the plan's initial land use map from suburban mixed to rural residential, which allows less density.

The Lakeside Neighborhood Plan Committee voted 5-2 to leave the designation of what was Eagle's Crest phases 5-9 the same with changes to the description that decrease the allowable density from one unit per 2 acres to one unit per 2.4 acres.

The committee will now look at a few remaining revisions in January 2010. The plan will then need to go back to the Lakeside Community Council before being sent into the formal public process with the Flathead County Planning Board and the County Commissioners for approval.

The Lakeside Community Club celebrated its 100-year anniversary in a May bash.The group of more than 130 women meet each month to plan community outreach.

A late-night August boat crash on Flathead Lake injured five people, including U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg.

State Sen. Greg Barkus was later charged with three felony counts, including one count of criminal endangerment and two counts of negligent vehicular assault for the crash. Barkus was driving his 22-foot speedboat when it crashed onto the rocks Aug. 27 as the party of five returned from a dinner in Lakeside on their way to Marina Cay Resort, where Rehberg was staying.

Barkus pleaded not guilty to the charges this fall. The case then went through a slew of different judges.

Phillips County District Judge John McKeon is presiding over the case after three Flathead County district judges removed themselves from the case because of their relationships with the senator. Two were also removed by motions from the prosecutor and defense attorney.

If convicted on all counts, Barkus could face a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and $70,000 in fines.

His trial date is now scheduled for April 5, 2010.

Flathead Valley Montessori Academy, just north of Somers, did not reopen its doors this fall. Now, the building is now used as an event center and had been for sale. The news came as a blow to supporters who have fought to keep the school afloat from year to year.

In September, residents of 160 Lakeside homes were encouraged to prepare for evacuation as a wildland fire spread on Baldy Mountain.

The Baldy Wildland Fire, located roughly three miles west of Lakeside, consumed approximately 240 acres on Baldy Mountain between Stoner and Bierney creeks.

Workers at Blacktail Grocery and volunteers at Lakeside Community Chapel opened their doors and their shelves to feed the hotshot and local fire crews in town to combat the fire.

Work continued throughout this year to bring Lakeside a waterfront park but picked up in the fall.

The battle for the Bay Shore Motel in downtown Lakeside came to an end, when By The Lake Realty finalized a deal with Bruce Ennis, who last year purchased the neighboring Mattson property with the intention of converting the land into a county park.

The park, a project taken on by residents Margaret Davis and Bruce Ennis, is meant to provide a swimming area as well as public parking.

Ennis purchasing the motel and property for a mere $800,000.

Demolition work began in October in the process of developing the new lake front park north of the Adams Street public dock.

Work on preparing the site will continue through the next year, with an expected completion date of fall 2010.

In October, the former chief of the Somers-Lakeside Volunteer Fire Department appeared in court facing allegations of embezzling more than $13,000 from department funds over the course of three years.

Somers resident Robert W. Kienas, 50, has pleaded not guilty to one count of felony theft. Kienas is accused of misappropriating funds from department bank accounts between January 2005 and September 2007.

Dayton residents are still mourning the death of resident scientist, photographer and retired University of Montana professor Alex Volborth, who died in his home Oct. 30.

Volborth had more than 80 publications and reviewed scientific papers to his credit, with his work in the United States supported by the National Science Foundation.

Residents were incensed about the latest round of property tax reappraisals, as many near the lake saw their property values double or triple.

The most recent reappraisal cycle, which ran from Jan. 1, 2002, through July 1, 2008, saw taxable values significantly raised for some residents in Flathead County. Residential property increased roughly 73 percent in value overall in the county.

Town hall meetings in Bigfork and then in Kalispell held by area Republican legislators gave residents a chance to air their concerns and express frustration with the process.

Legislators promised they would seek solutions and recognized the system was "broken."

Evidence of the impacts of the national economic situation were seen in the number of West Shore children in need during the holiday season. The West Shore Food Bank's list of children had grown to more than 150 this year. This reflects the increased demands on the food bank, which has seen needs increase by more than 40 percent, said director Leslie Knuth

Lakeside Elementary School became one of three Montana schools nominated for the 2010 National Blue Ribbon Schools Award this fall.

These awards, which came out of the No Child Left Behind Act, recognize schools that have high academic achievement or have shown dramatic gains in achievement levels, partially based on reaching annual yearly progress, or AYP, goals on standardized tests.

It looks particularly at high performance in reading and math and honors schools that have at least 40 percent of their students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. The school will find out sometime in 2010 whether it makes the cut.

In December, the Lakeside QRU closed on a location for a new home.

The new location will be on 2 acres of donated property west of the current fire hall the QRU has been sharing with the Somers-Lakeside Fire Department on Bills Road.