Community leaders present plans for 2021

SEELEY LAKE - Seeley Lake Community Council listened to presentations from multiple community leaders during their virtual meeting Monday, Jan. 11. Speakers included Missoula District Administrator Bob Vosen who presented Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) projects expected to take place in the upcoming year; Claire Muller, Seeley Lake Community Foundation executive director, who presented the Foundation’s accomplishments in 2020 and their plans for 2021; and Seeley Lake District Ranger Quinn Carver who spoke about the U.S. Forest Service’s plans for 2021.

In Vosen’s presentation, he spoke about encroachments and what is and is not allowed on public roadways and why.

Encroachments are considered displays that are not necessary for the roadway and are not installed or maintained by MDT. They also infiltrate the right of way. Examples of encroachments include banners on light poles, flower planters and memorial plaques. They can be allowed but there is a permission process.

Vosen said when MDT reviews encroachments, one of the biggest factors considered is safety. There is also an environmental component. Communities that are looking to display banners along the roadway are required to submit an encroachment application to MDT. 

He said while MDT does not generally take issue with community banners on light poles, it did not approve individualized banners intended to honor graduating seniors in Western Montana communities. General community banners are considered less of a distraction because they can be more repetitive. Because every banner would have been different, drivers would be more focused on each individual sign rather than the road. 

“It can lead to distracted driving, because the focus leaves the roadway and now all of a sudden your focus is off the side of the roadway and 15 feet in the air, which is really where we can’t have it,” Vosen said.

In a statement provided to the Pathfinder following the meeting, Karen Kovatch, Seeley Swan Blackhawk Booster Club president, said the Club was attempting to create a “normal” Homecoming for Seeley-Swan High School students in October by decorating the town with black and gold streamers. However, on Oct. 14 an MDT employee asked a Booster Club leader to have the club remove the decorations from light poles and reflector posts. Kovatch did not think the adornment compromised public safety. Students and the Boosters removed the decorations Oct. 18.

“It never occurred to me to ask permission or to look up all applicable rules, laws or mandates because this decorating has been a long tradition of SSHS,” Kovatch said in an email. “No streamers were tied around the reflective portion of the reflector posts. Most of the decorations are in areas where the speed limit is 25 mph with a small section in the 35 mph section. I am adamant that we remove the decorations, all tape and pick up any pieces that have come loose as soon as the season is finished.”

When COVID forced students to learn remotely last spring, the Club designed banners for each graduating senior and hung them from light poles throughout downtown Seeley Lake. The MDT employee said that the Booster Club would probably not be able to put up banners for the Class of 2021 and the 2020 banners were almost removed by the department.

The club leader was also told that the flower boxes at the base of the light poles were going to be removed as well as the Chamber of Commerce’s other banners.

“The countless hours folks have spent on beautifying Seeley Lake with flowers, streamers and banners should not be stopped due to a technicality,” Kovatch wrote. “I hope the permission the Chamber obtained before the flower boxes were installed is produced and we can continue our traditions and display Class of 2021 banners for students forging ahead in a year not even close to normal.”

Vosen said he does not have an issue with the planters located on Highway 83 under the light poles in Seeley Lake but there is a concern regarding the planters’ construction. The bases of the poles allow access to the wiring if maintenance is needed. The bolts of the poles are covered with dirt creating a maintenance issue for MDT.

Vosen said the bolts are not designed to be underground and is unsure how they will be affected by corrosion in the long run. MDT’s maintenance staff will be reaching out to the community next year to make inspections and determine a way to leave the planters in place while preventing dirt from covering the bolts.

Resident Cheri Thompson said the community worked with the Safety Department out of Helena on the project that set up the planters. According to her, there is an inner box around the light pole base preventing dirt from entering although it has been 20 years since that project began.

Vosen also addressed fold-out signs being too close to road shoulders. These can obstruct cyclists and cause hazards for people pulling out of side roads. If maintenance workers encounter these, they will ask that the sign be pulled back from the right of way.

Vosen asked members of the community to remove memorial plaques along the right of way due to safety hazards. According to him, the light poles are not safety tested with the plaques hung on them. They also typically feature a smaller print and are angled almost perpendicular to the flow of traffic encouraging drivers to look away from the road. He said MDT is trying to figure out what they can do to allow some kind of a memorial but generally personalized memorials are not allowed in MDT’s right of way.

Vosen said maintenance personnel are planning to redo both sides of the white road stripes that pass through town next summer. That project will be highly weather dependent.

Following this, Vosen addressed upcoming projects in the area including the project around Salmon Lake. MDT is also working on a centerline rumble strip project from north Clearwater Junction to the southern end of the Salmon Lake project. In this project, the center lane strips are ground to alert drivers when they cross over into the opposite lane.

For more information about projects and road conditions visit https://mdt.mt.gov.

Muller presented the Foundation’s accomplishments in 2020. Before COVID-19, the Foundation was organizing workshops in February and helped develop a community events website, https://seeleyswanevents.net that is now administered by the Seeley Swan Pathfinder. When the pandemic hit, the Foundation created an online space where community members could locate local resources. They also raised $65,000 for 15 organizations through the Change Your Pace Challenge.

She said a major focus this upcoming year is going to be maintenance on the community as a whole. In addition to the community grants program and Seeley Lake Market that are expected to take place, the Foundation will also provide technology courses throughout the year. They intend to utilize the remaining $500 of grant money they received from Reimagining Rural towards Winterfest. 

Carver then spoke about three projects that are expected to take place in full this summer. One is the Highway 83 Alva-Rainy project where there will be a 200-foot thinning on either side of the highway to clear out dead trees in the Lake Alva-Rainy Lake area.

The second project is Rice, Insect and Disease (RIDX) which will begin this month but will not be seen until the end of summer. The project revolves around mitigating the effects of Douglas fir bark beetles from Rice Ridge to McCabe Creek through salvage logging.

The last project is the state of Montana proposing to use pesticides on non-native fish in the North Fork Blackfoot River. The USFS will be authorizing pesticide use permits and will conduct “analyzed wilderness intrusions” with a helicopter. Westslope cutthroat trout will then be integrated into the environment.

Carver also spoke about developing a third parking area in Big Larch using money from the Great American Outdoors Act.

The next council meeting will take place Feb. 8 at 6 p.m.