Seeley Lake Community Council
SEELEY LAKE - The Seeley Lake Community Council resumed their monthly virtual meetings Monday, Sept. 13. There, attendees listened to representatives from the Seeley Lake Ranger District and Seeley Lake Sewer District talk about their groups’ upcoming plans.
Seeley Lake Ranger District recreation manager Matt Walter announced that Lake Alva and River Point Campgrounds will be closed by Oct. 1. Seeley Lake Campground is already closed and Big Larch remains open year round but there are no services and the roads will not be plowed.
He said that fire managers will soon meet to discuss the Dry Cabin Fire, which has encompassed three different Ranger districts and is burning in the Scapegoat wilderness. He said fortunately things have calmed down a lot.
Walter said the District’s trail crews have successfully cut out all of their trails and are starting hunting season patrols. They faced a challenging situation when one member of their group as well as some Montana Conservation Corps members had caught the delta variant of COVID-19. To adapt they had to keep certain crew members separate from one another to avoid contagion.
In the near future, Walter said they are working on a new winter snowmobile connector for the Clearwater Loop near Highway 83. They hope that it will make the grooming process easier.
In the spring they will receive $50,000 worth of new campground signs most of which will be installed along Highway 83.
The District’s next big project is going to be doing “a bunch of work” for the Seeley Lake Campground. He said they intend to keep putting forward proposals until all four major campgrounds around the lake are addressed.
In her presentation, Seeley Lake Sewer District Board Director Cheri Thompson said the board is reorganizing, refocusing and creating an action plan.
“We’re asking the community not just to complain but to be part of the solution,” she said. “Contribute what you know about things and let’s work together as a team.”
The Board is reworking its website to make it more user friendly and make contact information more accessible. She said interested members of the public can sign up at https://seeleysewer.org to receive updates.
Thompson said they will be asking their members about certain aspects of their septic tanks in order to research what factors are contributing to issues.
Council Treasurer Sally Johnson questioned why the Clearwater Junction RV dump station had been closed. Thompson said that from her understanding, the required maintenance was too much for Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks staff.
Johnson said that the closure did not make sense to her because it would likely impact the environment when people would dump either on the highway or in the woods. She added if the motivation is cost related, there are other greater costs at play with its removal.
“I just don’t think that we should accept that as the reason,” she said. “I think we need to have them discuss with us what’s happening because this affects our community.”
Walter said the Forest Service did have some concerned discussions about the station closure and that he would talk to Seeley Lake District Ranger Quinn Carver to see if he can talk to the state about restarting its services.
“It’s important for us to have those [dump sites] available with the amount of camping that Seeley has for sure,” he said.
Next month the Seeley Lake Council will elect its new officers.
A recording of the meeting is available on the Seeley Lake Community Council’s Facebook page. The next meeting is tentatively scheduled for 6 p.m. Oct. 11.
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