Columbia Falls urges county to adopt new trails plan
Crews from LHC Construction work on the new bike path along U.S. Highway 2 in this file photo.
Columbia Falls sent a letter last week to the Flathead County Weeds, Parks and Recreation Board expressing its support for the updated Flathead County Trails Plan.
“The Columbia Falls City Council respectfully requests your approval of the updated Flathead County Trails Plan and subsequent recommendation to the Flathead County Board of Commissioners to adopt the updated plan in 2019. The last comprehensive trail plan was adopted by the County Commissioners on October 12, 2010,” the letter states.
The trails plan has been in the works for a couple of years now. It doesn’t obligate the county to spend any money on trails, but even so, the new plan doesn’t appear to be going anywhere anytime soon.
Earlier this month, the weed board voted to table the new draft and there doesn’t appear to be any impetus to revive it.
Trail advocates say they need the plan’s language updated because it allows them to apply for state and federal grants, among other things.
“The Flathead County Trails Plan update revises the outdated 2010 plan and will provide a comprehensive visioning document useful for transportation planning and grant applications for multiple users, including the City of Columbia Falls.
“We thank the Flathead County Personnel and the PATHS (People, Athletics, Travel, Health and Safety Advisory Committee), for their work on the Trails Plan update and respectfully request approval of the update by the Flathead County Weeds, Parks and Recreation Board and the Board of County Commissioners,” the city said in its letter.
The trails plan has broad support. At a Weeds, Parks and Recreation Board meeting earlier this month, of the 20 people who spoke in favor of moving the plan on to the Planning Board were Jeff Mow, superintendent of Glacier National Park, Chip Weber, forest supervisor for Flathead National Forest, Jandy Cox, owner of Rocky Mountain Outfitter and Joe Unterreiner, president and chief executive officer of the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce.
The Associated Chambers of the Flathead, in a three-page letter dated Feb. 4, had also urged the Weed, Parks and Recreation Board to move the plan forward.
Columbia Falls hopes to eventually work with the Forest Service and the Glacier to Gateway Trail organization to create a network of paths north of the city on Forest Service lands for horses, hikers and mountain bikers.
The Gateway Group is also working with the Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. on a trail on the east side of the Flathead River that would eventually tie into a trail that follows U.S. Highway 2 to Glacier National Park.
The idea is that eventually, a person could get on a bicycle and ride to Glacier or the Cedar Flats without having to use a road, or at the very least, just a short section of road.