City council tweaks letter supporting North Fork paving

The Columbia Falls City Council Monday night tweaked the language of a letter it plans on sending out to local, state, and federal lawmakers urging the paving of the North Fork Road to Camas Creek.

There were two issues at stake in the letter — one was the accuracy of the language itself. Councilman Darin Fisher noted the letter asked that the Glacier National Park establish the Camas entrance as an eastern entrance to the Park — it’s actually a western entrance.

In the broader picture, councilman Dave Petersen sought to strike language in the letter that suggested that paving the North Fork would create more traffic down Nucleus Avenue and thus help the city.

Petersen said suggested the city stick to the broader issue of dust from the dirt road and the cost to maintain it, rather than the city’s economic health.

The rest of council agreed, but councilman John Piper didn’t see an issue with it.

“The letter is from Columbia Falls,” he said. “I don’t see a problem.”

The city is already encouraging folks to visit downtown. The North Fork, paved or not paved, already draws a lot of traffic — in the summer months traffic estimates are that it sees about 400 vehicles a day.

Paving is an expensive proposition — the Montana Department of Transportation estimated it would cost about $15 million to pave it to a 36-foot width, and that was back in 2010. A narrower road — 24 feet — was about $10 million.

The future of the road is largely up to Glacier National Park, however. The Park in the past has maintained the Camas Road isn’t built to take heavy traffic. There is no formal entrance station on the Camas Road.

In other news:

- Council approved the low bid of $832,392 to Cutting Edge Excavation for the Riverwood Estates subdivision special improvement district. The project will rebuild the road and install sewer and water lines to 27 lots in the subdivision. All told, with engineering and other costs, the project will run about $1.2 million. The city will pay $864,075 of the cost. The remainder will be split among the homeowners, who can make a one-time payment or pay in increments over a 20-year period.

- The city OK’d extended hours for paving of U.S. Highway 2 later this fall. The city will allow paving from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. so paving can be done at night. That allows for a better surface and easier traffic control, said MDT engineer Bob Vosen. Work on the highway is set to begin in mid-August and run though the fall, with no paving until after Labor Day. Vosen estimated it would take about two weeks to fully repave the highway. The MDT plans of giving weekly updates on the project and will not work near the Nucleus Avenue intersection on Thursday nights when the Farmer’s Market is taking place.