Dust patrol begins

A sheriff's deputy specifically assigned to enforce speed limits on Flathead County's gravel roads will conduct his first patrol today.

County commissioners authorized the Sheriff's Office to spend about $60,000 this year to hire and equip the additional deputy - part of a comprehensive plan to mitigate the county's dust problem.

"His main function is to slow people down on gravel roads, hopefully to keep the dust down," Flathead County Sheriff Mike Meehan said.

Deputy Stewart Smith will patrol the county's gravel roads in a marked squad car between May 1 and Oct. 31, focusing on enforcing the speed limit in areas with the worst dust problems.

"He'll be working all over the county," Meehan said.

Flathead County has about 700 miles of gravel roads and 400 miles of paved roads.

Smith, who will work full-time on a rotating schedule during the summer months, is responsible strictly for traffic enforcement and won't respond to other emergency calls, Meehan said. He has the authority to write all kinds of traffic tickets, including for DUI.

He also has the discretion to write a citation or give a verbal warning, but a ticket is the preferred response to a traffic stop, according to Meehan. All warnings will be documented.

"He'll have discretion, but he'll be writing citations, too," Meehan said.

Patrol assignments will be based on the number of dust complaints received, number of traffic stops on a given road, when those stops occur, and at what speeds offenders were traveling.

Roads that currently receive the most dust complaints include Hoffman Draw, McMannamy Draw, North Fork Road, Trumble Creek Road, Blankenship Road, Kienas Road, Braig Road and Mennonite Church Road.

Smith has served as a reserve sheriff's deputy, a major in the sheriff's posse, and the Evergreen school resource officer, Meehan said.

The additional deputy is just one component of the three-year Road Dust Action Plan that commissioners adopted to avoid a $29,000 fine imposed in January 2007 by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality for violating the Clean Air Act of Montana.

The plan requires the county to take "reasonable precautions" to prevent excessive road dust. Projects called for in the agreement will cost about $150,000 over the next three years, according to Commissioner Joe Brenneman.

If the dust plan isn't strictly followed, the county faces additional penalties, Brenneman said.

The project's main components include adding law enforcement for dust patrols, posting more signs, and completing a dust palliative application.

The plan requires commissioners to spend $42,638 for an additional deputy to patrol the county's unpaved roads in the first year, $38,788 the second year and $39,328 the third year.

"I think that's going to be a real integral part of the program," Flathead County Public Works Director Dave Prunty said.

The plan also requires the county to install 30 speed-limit sign clusters each year for the next three years. Signs for the mandatory 35 mph speed limit are placed on top of signs denoting a recommended speed limit of 20 mph on all unpaved roads.

Even though authorities recommend people travel at 20 mph in dusty conditions, tickets can't be issued unless speeds are more than 35 mph.

Other signs may include those that read "no through truck traffic" and "local access only."

Each sign cluster costs $150. The total cost for signs is $5,075.

The county has installed more than 30 recommended speed-limit signs on gravel roads, Prunty said.

The county also has agreed to pay $10,000 a year for the next three years for dust mitigating treatments.

Road crews are looking at a new dust palliative that doubles as a stabilizing agent to prevent washboarding of roads, Prunty said.

"Maybe there's a better mousetrap out there that may not cost as much," he said, noting that road oil last year cost thousands of dollars per mile.

The Road Advisory Committee, created about six months ago, is working not only on other ideas to reduce dust on gravel roads, but also ways to improve the county's highways and byways as a whole, Prunty said.

"Our hope is to mitigate dust by using the reasonable precautions that the county and DEQ have agreed on," he said.

And though dust never will be eradicated from gravel roads, the goal is to reduce that dust as much as possible, Prunty said.

"So far, we've been pretty happy as we get into spring," he said. "It looks pretty good. Better than it has in other springs so far."

Reporter Nicholas Ledden can be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at nledden@dailyinterlake.com