Survey to help decide access debate

Lake County commissioners are having a piece of land on Swan Lake surveyed to establish a walk-in public access — and neighboring landowners aren’t happy about it.

Commissioner Bill Barron led a public meeting June 29 that was attended by about two dozen people who have taken an interest in the access that was donated to the county in 1925 by Mabel Bond, whose family is the namesake for Swan Lake features such as Bond Creek.

The property is about 25 feet wide and 554 long between Montana 83 and the lakeshore, said Steve Wingard, a Swan Lake area resident and canoeist who would like to see the access formally recognized by the county.

Wingard said neighboring landowners have posted “no trespassing” signs to discourage public access on the property.

“I went down there on June 5 and one of the homeowners on the north side denied me access to take my canoe down there to go paddling,” Wingard said. “The homeowners are very much opposed to having this access open.”

Wingard subsequently inquired about the location of survey pins for the property and discovered they are missing.

During the community meeting it was decided that the property needs to be re-surveyed, and that survey is getting under way this week, Barron said Monday.

“The consensus at the meeting was that let’s get it surveyed so we know what we’re talking about,” Barron said, adding that the survey could reveal “encroachment issues” involving neighboring properties.

“There will be some issues with it,” he said. “But I don’t think it will be anything that will keep us from making that a usable public access.”

Barron said neighboring property owners want the county to abandon the property.

“I don’t think that’s in the public interest and I don’t think that’s what this woman wanted when the land was given,” he said. “So I just want to work out something that everyone can live with.”

Wingard said the property has not been effectively abandoned by the public because people have used it over the years to reach the lake, particularly during months when neighboring property owners are using their summer homes.

Barron said he believes that some of the landowners approached the county commissioners in the early 1990s to have the property abandoned, but Swan Lake area residents got wind of it and the former commissioners backed off.

“Public access is important to us,” he said, particularly on Swan Lake.

Wingard said there is only one other decent public access on the lake, the U.S. Forest Service day use site about half a mile north of the site that’s being surveyed. The Forest Service access is operated by a concessions contractor who charges a daily fee of $4 per person, Wingard said.

Barron and Wingard said they understand the concerns of neighboring property owners about the access site becoming a nuisance, but that’s why there is general agreement to keep it as low-key as possible.

“It would be a walk-in, nonmotorized access,” Wingard said. “Everybody’s in agreement with that, even some of the homeowners.”

“This one would be walk in, walk out,” Barron said. “There wouldn’t be any public facilities there or anything. We try really hard to be sensitive to the private landowners.”

Barron said once the survey is completed, another community meeting will be scheduled.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com.