Couple files suit over Kreck Park, claims nuisance

By CHRIS PETERSON

Hungry Horse News

A Columbia Falls couple has filed suit in Flathead County District Court claiming the city’s Kreck Riverside Park is a nuisance and the court should force the city to do something about it.

Mark and Inge Cahill filed the complaint in late August.

They own property both to the north and to the south of the park, which is about a 50-foot wide strip of land that provides access to the Flathead River.

“People frequently use the path to trespass and engage in other unlawful conduct that interferes with the uninterruptible enjoyment of Cahill property and is unreasonable,” the couple claims in its complaint.

The city, in court documents, denies the allegations and is asking for a jury trial.

The city has seen vandalism at the park in recent months. Montana’s stream access law, however, allows fishermen access to the river via the park, as long as a person stays below the high water mark.

In this case, the bank is very steep, so staying below it is not difficult. The access is popular with wading fishermen as it has several good fishing holes.

The city and the Cahills have been at odds for years. The Cahill’s property was previously owned by Loren Kreck, a conservation-minded resident who actually donated a path that ran along the river on his property.

But when he died, the Cahills insisted the easement be expunged, claiming the path was resulting in vandalism on their land, even though Kreck never seemed to have a problem for the decades he owned the land.

In 2021, the Cahills claimed that the park was a “nuisance” under the law and should be closed immediately. The suit filed in August formalizes that complaint.

The Cahills at that time claimed that because the old Red Bridge is abandoned, there is no legal public access under Montana’s stream access law to the river.

The Red Bridge is registered listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 2010. The bridge, however, is not in the city limits. It is in the county and little has been done to take care of it for the past 25 years, save for paint.

The city over the years has invested about $25,000 in landscaping and other amenities at the Kreck Park and in a subsequent 2021 letter to the Cahills, said it has no intention of closing the park.

They note that the Cahills haven’t bothered to put up a fence to keep people off the south side of their property.

The north side is fenced by a chain link fence.

The Cahills appear to be representing themselves in the matter. The case is filed before Flathead County District Court Judge Dan Wilson.