Court hearing on slope issue delayed
Today’s planned Flathead District Court hearing on a county decision to terminate a grant for slope stabilization off Whitefish Stage Road has been postponed.
The hearing has not yet been rescheduled.
Whitefish attorney Sean Frampton, who represents homeowners who worked to get federal slope stabilization money, said the county has agreed to provide the documents involved with the issue and it will take more time to gather them.
District Court Judge Ted Lympus last week granted a temporary restraining order stopping the county commissioners from terminating a $298,000 grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The county had agreed to be the sponsoring agency — a pass-through vehicle for the grant money — and no county money was committed to the project. Homeowners have committed their match of $102,000.
The case involves a recent decision by the commissioners to halt a four-year effort by a group of homeowners to get federal money to stabilize a section of bluff near Village Greens that collapsed in 2010.
The court hearing will allow the commissioners to argue why a preliminary injunction should not be issued.