Landowner claims city should close Kreck Red Bridge Park

The city of Columbia Falls and a local landowner are at odds over the Kreck Red Bridge Park.

Residents Mark and Inge Cahill, who own land on both sides of the park, have repeatedly called police and turned in people for trespassing on their property. The Cahills claim, through their attorney David Wilson, that the park is a “nuisance” under the law and should be closed immediately.

The Cahills also claim that because the old Red Bridge is abandoned, there is no legal public access under Montana’s stream access law to the river. The Cahills first complained to the city in a letter in May. That letter was just recently made public.

The city over the years has invested about $25,000 in landscaping and other amenities at the Red Bridge Park and in a subsequent letter to the Cahills, said it has no intention of closing the park.

In its rebuke letter, city attorney Justin Breck noted that most of the claims by the Cahills were unsubstantiated. Breck also notes in the letter that Cahill has not posted his property under state law properly.

“It does not seem, given Mr. Cahill’s past and present behavior, that he genuinely wants to keep people off his property to the south and west of the subject area. Rather it appears that he is doing nothing to discourage trespass all in an effort to build a compendium of filed complaints supporting the very claims you make

in your (Wilson’s) letter. This is, however, only informed speculation on our part. As an aside to this, your claim that there is no legal access to the Flathead River from the former Red Bridge Road abutment is false, as Mr. Cahill knows from the city council testimony and of representatives from Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks,” Breck responded in June.

The Cahills at last week’s city council meeting asked that the matter be formally put on the Sept. 7 agenda.

But Breck’s letter in June said the city had no intention of meeting with Wilson, the Cahills or closing the city park.

“If Mr. Cahill believes that his claims have merit and that a court of competent jurisdiction would actually find in his favor, then, by all means, file a complaint and the city will defend itself accordingly. Until a court says otherwise, however, the city will continue to legally operate, maintain, improve and develop this area as a city park for the benefit of its residents,” Breck wrote.

The Cahills a few years ago badgered the city into abandoning a path easement along the river that the late Loren Kreck donated to the city.

Kreck was the former owner of the Cahill’s home and a champion of public access to rivers. The Cahill’s claimed there was vandalism to their adjacent property by people using the path.

Mayor Don Barnhart was not pleased with Cahill’s tactics. He said Cahill is simply trying to block public access to the Flathead River with round after round of complaints.

“Loren (Kreck) would roll over in his grave,” Barnhart said. The Cahills have also challenged a recent ruling by the Columbia Falls Board of Adjustment that would allow the owner of a property across the street from their home to rebuild apartments that burned down in a fire.

If the apartments were rebuilt, the Cahills claim it would be an “unbearable nuisance” to them — a familiar theme. That case is still pending in district court.

Editor's note: This story has been edited to correct that the city has invested $25,000 in the Red Bridge Park.