OPINION: North Fork Road saga could very possibly have no end

Regarding your story, “North Fork traffic may worsen next year,” talk about deja vu all over again!

This article from earlier this year reads right out of the past and the past and the past ... almost to infinity. However it did provide me with episodes of both mirth and teeth-grinding despair. There’s a cast of characters responsible for the inability of the North Fork Road to handle increased traffic. This responsibility ranges from ignorant neglect, misguided idealism, and on into a determined unwillingness to provide a safe and environmentally healthy road.

The characters include:

n The Columbia Falls City Council: I remember briefing these yokels in the mid-’90s on the economic advantages of a paved road. The interest was decidedly subdued. For all it mattered I could have been speaking Bulgarian to American fifth-graders. Now City Manager Susan Nicosia, sounding like Trump, vows to reap rewards with more signage. The Inter Lake says this has “long been a goal of the city.” Just how long, Madam Manager? I’m afraid signs are too little too late.

The empty storefronts and dowdy appearance of most buildings will not attract customers. If arriving from the west they will have spent their provisions money in Kalispell. Arriving from the east they will head right into Glacier Park with a stop at West Glacier Merc. But you might pick up a few shekels from the wanderers.

n Flathead County commissioners: A collection of milquetoasts dating back to at least 1992. They had the dollars in hand to at least pave to Camas, but were frightened off when an environmental uproar ensued. Ineptitude, indecision and politics have been the benchmark of the county commission. Now Phil Mitchell, inheriting the North Fork mess, once again raises the specter of paving, then vows to not spend more money on the road without looking at paving. You just stepped on a land mine, Mr. Commissioner.

But then he plays back into the clutches of environmentally unbalanced folks with one of their favorite objections, commenting that paving could increase traffic and the speeds at which motorists drive on the road. Duh! You think so, commissioner? Using that logic why do we pave any road? Good luck, Phil. You either do it or you don’t. Ignorant excuses from the past keep getting resuscitated by inept politicians. They want it both ways. The result: Nothing meaningful happens.

n Forest Service: The big, silent green monster lurking all around the North Fork Road. Its bureaucrats are mostly tied to their computers, except sending underlings running dozens of vehicles up and down the road almost daily. In good weather, that is. In fact, government vehicles, county, state and federal, beat up both the road and vehicles often traveling at unsafe speeds roiling dust and spinning rocks into someone’s windshield. The Forest Service has managed to stay relatively silent on the road paving issue. By design I suspect.

The agency controls federal dollars from the PILT program and prioritizes who gets the money. To its credit the Forest Service has been generous. It has not, however, actively promoted paving, which is the right thing to do. Tough to get done, politically speaking, when you’re in bed with environment brethren.

n U.S. Border Patrol: Another federal agency constantly swirling dust and rocks about as agents speed up and down the road looking for and sometimes chasing bad guys. The Border Patrol declined to get involved in the paving issue, saying it was a local issue. Now it’s willing to support repairs to the last five miles to the border. At least it recognizes the worst section of road. Only millionaire, rental and government vehicle rubber meets this road. All others do so at considerable financial risk and inconvenience miles from nowhere.

n Glacier National Park: And now we have the powerful meddler that has almost single-handily kept the road from being improved in any fashion. A sequence of superintendents devised a management plan to ensure that the northwest region of the park remains unsullied by commercial enterprise. It let the Inner North Fork Road decay to make it almost impassable for much of the year. It discouraged paving of the North Fork Road with its allegiance of worldwide outsiders rallying to the cause.

Not many gave a thought that the National Park Service has no business in getting involved with a matter concerning the county and the state. Its undue influence has deprived taxpaying citizens the right to a modern safe road. It’s strange that an agency touting wilderness experiences would not permanently repair the Inner Road thus giving ticket buying visitors the option of heading north through a beautiful forested area. If the Inner Road were passable, encouraging visitors to use it would help minimize traffic on the North Fork Road.

I’m sure this concept will be dismissed out of hand for some esoteric reason. No one wants to challenge the bully on the block and pave the road. Better to let it continue to deteriorate seems to be the political choice.

n My best laugh came when reading Sen. Dee Brown’s comment “This isn’t a hearing. This is a fact-finding. I’m not looking at solving this in 2016. Let’s set our sights on the distance and talk about what opportunities are available.” What facts could possibly emerge that haven’t been gone over and over and...? How distant are you looking Madame Senator?

This political can has been kicked down the road (pun intended) for nearly three decades if not longer. Brown has been on the local political scene for a long time and could have been a proponent for paving, but to my recollection she never actively worked in that direction. Maybe she has a retirement date in mind and plans to at least kick the can past that date.

The teeth gnashing came when reading “Still, local officials leading the meeting focused more on THE NEED FOR MORE INFORMATION” (emphasis added). Dear Lord, there are tomes of information gathering North Fork Road dust in your file cabinets and on your hard drives. Please lead these mortal fools to the location. Amen.

Lastly, I think residents and tourists are in for more of the article’s opening paragraph: “While a long term solution remains elusive, residents and community leaders in and around the North Fork agree that traffic along the dusty, washboard-prone road is likely to get worse next year.” And the next and the next and...

Grimaldi is a resident of Columbia Falls.