UBVCC covers array of topics at July meeting

The Upper Blackfoot Valley Community Council discussed a wide number topics at their July 21 meeting, including updates the Mike Horse road and restoration project to an Envision Lincoln grant award to COVID-19.

Mike Horse

Information provided to the UBVCC indicated construction work at the UBMC is nearing completion, and work on Mike Horse Road is finished, with a “heavily armored” ford in place across the Blackfoot River.

According to the update read by UBVCC Chairman Zach Muse, the road “is still in place and travelable from Highway 200 to where it intersects Meadow Creek Road.”

Once construction work is complete at the site, they’ll do a final touch up on the roads with a grader and open the gates at Mike Horse Road and Meadow Creek road.

Muse noted the gates had been “dummy locked,” but are currently padlocked following the theft of fencing materials last month.

In response to an inquiry by the BVD this week regarding the theft, Steve Opp, the Minerals & Geology Program Manager with the Forest Service, explained in an e-mail that the materials were staged on forest system land off Mike Horse road, halfway between the Water Treatment Plant and the Horseshoe Bend. Opp said he was the last person to see them on June 3, and they were found to be missing by Beau Downing of Montana Natural Resource Damage Program on June 10. The total value of the material, which included treated wooden posts and rolls of fencing and wire amounted to $3040.

Willow Creek

New Community Council member Michael Stansberry said the Forest Service has asked Pyramid Lumber, the company that purchased the timber sale associated with the Willow Creek Vegetation Project to get in touch with Lewis and Clark County Public Works Director Eric Griffin. Since Dalton Bridge has restrictions on it, if they opt to bring logging trucks out on the Lincoln side of Dalton Mountain, they will need to work out details around the use Herrin Lake Road, and safety measures that may need to be implemented.

Rumble strips

Muse noted that he sent an e-mail to the Montana Department of Transportation district maintenance chief out of concern for the centerline rumble strips, the damage they are doing to the highways in the area and safety issues involving motorcyclists and trailers.

Muse got a response from an individual with DOT at the state level, who agreed the rumble strips gouged out of the existing road beds are a poor design. Although they are going to change how they do them, using a wave design, there’s no short-term solution for the damage.

“The only thing they can do right now is to fill them in,” muse said.

Envision Lincoln

Council member Karyn Good, who is also the lead organizer for Envision Lincoln, said they have “super good news.”

With help from the Heart of the Rockies Imitative, Envision Lincoln applied for and received a USDA Resource Development Block Grant that will support a second round of implementation planning for the in town trails project.

“We found that with the trails plan currently in place there are a lot of missing pieces including cost estimates, different trail; surface options, things like that,” Good said. “We went in and had a conversation with the county and MDT. They told us you guys have to do a deeper dive on planning if you are going. to get funding for this…and more support for this.

The other part of the grant includes funding for a comprehensive trail map that will be hosted on the Lincoln Valley Chamber of Commerce website. The map will include public lands and existing trails for all uses, including ATVs, snowmobiling, hiking and mountain biking

“We’re going to make it as searchable, user-friendly and zoomable and printable, and mobile app friendly as possible.” Good said, adding they have until next June to finish the map and trails planning.

Good said Envision Lincoln is planning a ‘core team’ meeting July 30 via zoom, to meet with Montana Main Street. She said it will be the goop’s first meeting with Montana Main Street since becoming members of the program.

Based on advice from several organizations, Good said they are considering developing a downtown master plan for Lincoln. “We don’t know all the ins and outs of this,” she said. “That’s why we’re having the meeting with Montana Main Street.”

COVID

Turning to issues surrounding COVID 19, Muse noted the delays in testing, saying the towns first responders still hadn’t received results of tests they’d taken in early July.

He said things are so overwhelmed that it tells you COVID is real and is out there, and that the mass testing put a strain on the labs, delaying tests for even front line workers, doctors’ nurses, and symptomatic individuals.

“I think you’re going to see less availability (of testing), but they’re going to put more pressure on people to wear masks.”

Muse said with less testing, numbers will probably go down, which in turn may make people complacent, but he said it’s not going away.

County Commissioner Jim McCormick said the county completed a population protection plan last summer.

“But we never thought a pandemic like COVID would be there so we are learning as we move through this thing. Now we know a heck of a lot more,” he said.

He said the county is working on a memorandum understanding with Community Organizations Assisting in Disasters, or COADs, to help provide immediate community outreach and aid as the COVID-19 pandemic progresses.

Muse ended the meeting buy asking people to take it easy on employees in local businesses who are enforcing the mask mandate, noting it’s not their rule. I hate to see the employees and the workers taking a beating because they’re doing what they have to do.”