Park usage proposal riles North Fork neighbors

The North Fork community got fired up over the past week over rumors that Polebridge Mercantile owner Will Hammerquist proposed to lease a Flathead County park. The proposal has since been rescinded.

Both Hammerquist and county officials say the matter was blown out of proportion.

Hammerquist, who took over at the popular bakery and general store last year, said he’s planning on buying a pony for his 4-year-old daughter, and was interested in grazing it on a largely unused, 3-acre park down the road. He said it had only gotten as far as an informal discussion with county Parks and Recreation Director Jed Fisher, but it quickly took on a life of its own as rumors started flying in the rural community.

“It’s an empty knapweed field that I’ve been spraying for a couple of years,” said Hammerquist, who withdrew his lease offer on Tuesday. “The next thing I know, I guess the 1960s are alive and well again and we have a letter-writing campaign going on. ... My whole deal was, let’s get some beneficial use out of it, whatever that is.”

Skyline Park is located at the end of Beaver Drive, bordered to the east by the North Fork of the Flathead River and the north by the Polebridge Mercantile’s property. It used to house a ballfield, but Hammerquist said it’s now nothing but an abandoned field and an old backstop.

However, North Fork resident Joe Novak said that when a discussion of the proposal appeared on the county Parks Board’s upcoming agenda, it raised a red flag for him and many other community members.

“If any zoning proposals are discussed, they come through the North Fork Land Use Board first, so there was a huge reaction [that it hadn’t],” Novak said. “It made a lot of us suspicious about what his real intention was.”

Fisher said he spoke with Hammerquist in June, and added a discussion of the proposal to the Park Board’s October meeting agenda. He said there was nothing secretive about the proposal, and the public field had been leased in the past for grazing.

Had the proposal gone forward, it would have had to win the neighbors’ approval, Fisher said. On Monday alone, Fisher said he received more than 30 emails and a several voice mail messages condemning it — the majority of which he said were well outside the scope of the limited discussion he had with Hammerquist in June.

Copies of emails sent to the parks director expressed concerns about water-quality impacts, quality of life for neighbors and the residents’ loss of a public space.

“As a public official, I don’t mind responding to people’s concerns, but I prefer if they’re based on facts and not conjecture,” Fisher said. “He’s now pulled the lease offer, and the attorneys and I agree with that.”

As for the future of the park, Hammerquist said he’s open to ideas, but would like to see it put to some use.

“There used to be a hockey rink there in the winter, and maybe that’s what we want to do,” he said. “If people have better ideas and are concerned about it, I’m totally committed to that end. It’s owned by the people of Flathead County, and if it’s a park, let’s make it a park.”

Reporter Samuel Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.