North shore property, public access disagreement

I am responding to you with the knowledge I have as one of the previous owners of Eagle Cove, and as the current secretary of the Eagle Cove Home Owners Association. I have not owned any of the property in question for almost 10 years. The property is currently owned by a local Bigfork resident and some of my family members who have ties to Flathead Lake since the 1930s. In fact, my daughter’s grandfather’s cabin on the east shore of the lake, which was built in 1938, is still owned by the family.

As far as property rights, it is a two-way street. To give you a historical perspective, the 120-year-old 30-foot road easement on the west end of the property that is shared with Fish, Wildlife, and Parks was granted to the county for a private dead-end road from Holt Drive to access the previous owner’s farm land, and for no other purpose! The county never built the proposed road or did any improvements, and based on current county standards that require a 60-foot right-of-way, it could not be built now. The road easement has no provisions for pedestrian access to Flathead Lake, and has never been used for that purpose.

Unfortunately, other areas of Eagle Cove have been illegally trespassed for years, even though the property has dozens of no-trespassing signs posted. The property has experienced significant vandalism over the years including the cutting down of trees, building dangerous fires, leaving tons of garbage, illegal parking, and the degradation of wetlands caused by trucks and ATVs when driven through the wetlands onto the lake bed, all in violation of federal, state, and county laws.

In late 2013, after years of vandalism and lawless behavior, the owners decided to fence in the most affected areas, thereby blocking parking and access to the lake. Since that time, a dedicated group of residents decided on their own that the old road easement on the west end of the property was theirs for the taking, and disseminated misinformation about the public’s right to use the old road easement for public access to Flathead Lake, and have made a concerted effort to bully and demonize the owners as “out-of-state shopping center developers who are trying to block their legal access to Flathead Lake.”

The proposed relocation of the old road easement in question by Fish, Wildlife, and Parks to an interior location on their site seems to be a good, common sense solution to provide the people of the area with safe and legal access to Flathead Lake. This plan would eliminate the dangerous parking conditions taking place now when cars are parked on the shoulders at the bend on Holt Drive by providing generous parking on site. This plan would also provide third-party professional management of the new easement area, which will benefit all concerned. As a good neighbor, Eagle Cove Home Owners Association has offered to contribute a significant share of the proposed new improvements.

Roger Sortino, of Woodinville, Wash., is secretary of the Eagle Cove Home Owners Association