Another good idea bites the dust

It hardly seems possible, but it just might get dustier and bumpier on the North Fork Road, even though there appears to be growing concern among North Forkers about those exact problems.

Flathead County, along with other counties across the country, is faced with a significant decline in funding for its road department with the limbo status of a federal program that has provided steady revenue for timber counties.

An extension of the Secure Rural Schools Act was included in a war funding bill that was vetoed by President Bush, and now Flathead County is staring at an annual shortfall close to $900,000, or about 17 percent of its total road department budget. And there is no long-term or even temporary political remedy on the horizon, according to County Commissioner Joe Brenneman.

That will only make it harder to maintain the infamous North Fork Road, which serves as a major access to national forest lands and the western flank of Glacier National Park.

Unless…

Unless the county did something innovative to take care of the road. We have an idea, but it's so simple and doable that it would never work.

How about a toll station to charge for use of the road, with revenues dedicated to dust abatement and road maintenance? Obviously, North Fork residents who already pay taxes for normal road maintenance would be exempt from tolls.

But still, it's an outlandish idea, because the North Fork Road is just like any other county road, right?

Wrong. Other county roads don't serve as a main arterial access to the western flank of Glacier National Park. They aren't the main access to the North Fork River, or the Coal Creek State Forest or the huge swath of national forest lands west of the river.

Other county roads aren't shouldering the daily traffic of U.S. Forest Service, Park Service and Border Patrol officials, not to mention state fish and game and state lands officials. Yet none of these official agencies pay for that access along a county route, nor do they regularly contribute to the road's maintenance costs.

Oh yes, there is one exception: only when there is a raging forest fire in the North Fork do state and federal agencies pitch in to take care of the road in a fashion the county can never afford.

Other county roads aren't accommodating thousands of park visitors, or raft companies and hunters and anglers. Nor is there usually high traffic on them. Most county roads are sleepy routes that have some through-traffic but mostly serve as access to scattered residential areas.

The North Fork Road is a different animal with different needs. But every summer, it boils dust and sediments, it rattles vehicles and takes out tires. Surely, this can't continue forever? Surely there has to be some solution.

But charging a toll on those who have the greatest impacts on the road? Preposterous.