Council to revisit trails committee future

SEELEY LAKE - The Seeley Lake Community Council voted to form a committee to study the future of the Council’s trails committee at the Sept. 10 Council meeting. In June the Council voted to disband the trails committee and hand over responsibility to trail maintenance and improvements to Seeley Lake Regional Outdoor Center for Kinetic Sports (ROCKS) but there is still confusion over what that actually looks like in practice.

“Right now there are far more questions than answers,” said ROCKS board president Jim McLean.

McLean said one of the big questions was the fate of approximately $10,000 in the Trails Committee fund. He said the funds have not been transferred nor does ROCKS want the money to be transferred to them.

McLean explained that the Council should have the budget authority over the funds. He felt the funds should be allocated by the Council to anyone who is applying for them instead of ROCKS being in the middle of it. If ROCKS wanted any of the funding for community trails, ROCKS would apply just like anyone else. This would keep a check and balance on the funds.

“I want to make darn sure nobody thinks ROCKS is putting money in their pocket by being involved in the trails project. That was never the intent,” said McLean.

McLean also asked if the Council could designate ROCKS as the lead non-profit organization for developing a mountain bike trails in the Placid Lake area on The Nature Conservancy lands. The designation would help ROCKS with grant applications.

ROCKS would also like to be designated as the organization to lead an effort to create a uniform trail sign policy. This would solve signage issues when trails cross multiple ownerships. Currently, trail sign requirements are different for state, federal and privately owned lands.

The Council questioned if it was premature to designate ROCKS for the projects. No plans for the trails have been presented but they plan to start with a short loop trail near the Placid Lake State Park. If that is successful, they will work toward building trails in the Hill 16 area and eventually over to Seeley Lake.

Council member Sally Johnson didn’t think the Council had the power to designate a group as having exclusive authority for a project. She felt that ROCKS already has the right to move forward with grant applications as an independent organization.

McLean said ROCKS would come with a presentation and ask for a letter of support at some point but would still like the Council’s backing to start the trail project or uniform sign project. McLean said it would help ROCKS when they approach agencies to discuss things if they have some kind of authority.

Through the discussion, the Council realized the issues ultimately were coming from a lack of understanding of what it meant for the Council to give ROCKS its Trails Committee and funding.

Longtime Council Trails Committee member Ron Cox explained what the Council was looking for was for someone to take over what they had and the Council would no longer be involved. Cox didn’t think there was a change from before if the Council needed to keep making funding and trails decisions.

The Council unanimously voted to form a committee to work on defining the relationship between the Council and ROCKS and the future of the Trails Committee.

The next Council meeting is Oct. 8 at 6 p.m.