New pedestrian trail 'all about safety'

It’s a small trail, but one the community of Lakeside has been looking forward to for five years.

On Nov. 25, the Lakeside Trail officially opened, allowing pedestrians and bicyclists to avoid one of the town’s most heavily trafficked sections of road by taking the scenic connector from the intersection of U.S. 93 and Blacktail Road to Ben Williams Park.

Muffie Thomson, the director and treasurer of the Lakeside Community Development Foundation, said the project began with a $300,000 Community Transportation Enhancement Program grant, but took five years before the nearly $100,000 matching grant was secured. Among a number of individual donors, Flathead Electric Cooperative contributed $7,500 from its “Round Up for Safety” grant program, which allows customers to donate money by rounding up to the nearest dollar on their power bills.

“This was all about safety,” Thomson said, noting that the stretch of road connecting the local ski area to the highway is the busiest thoroughfare in town. “It might not sound like much, but from this small community, we raised $50,000.”

One of the major expenses involved in constructing the asphalt trail was a $57,000 bridge over Stoner Creek, just north of Tamarack Brewing Co. The trail currently ends just short of Ben Miller Park.

While the original plan had the pathway continuing farther west to the campus of Youth With a Mission on Blacktail Road, Thomson said funding ran out before that segment could be completed.

Hopefully, she added, someone in the future will be interested in helping to fund the remaining stretch, for which engineering and planning work has already been completed.

The local community development organization will hold an official ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Stoner Creek Bridge on Friday, Dec. 2, at 10 a.m.

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