Landowners demand Columbia Falls close Old Red Bridge park

The city of Columbia Falls and a couple of local landowners are at odds over the Old Red Bridge park.

Mark and Inge Cahill, who own land on both sides of the park, have repeatedly called police and turned in people for trespassing on their property. The Cahills claim, through their attorney David Wilson, that the park is a "nuisance" under the law and should be closed immediately.

The Cahills also claim that because the Old Red Bridge is abandoned, there is no legal public access under Montana's stream access law to the Flathead River. The Cahills first complained to the city in a letter in May. That letter was just recently made public.

The city over the years has invested about $25,000 in landscaping and other amenities at the Red Bridge Park and, in a June letter responding to the Cahills, said it has no intention of closing the park, formerly known as Kreck Riverside Park.

In that rebuke, City Attorney Justin Breck said most of the Cahills' claims were unsubstantiated and they had not properly marked their property as private.

"It does not seem, given Mr. Cahill's past and present behavior, that he genuinely wants to keep people off his property to the south and west of the subject area. Rather, it appears that he is doing nothing to discourage trespass, all in an effort to build a compendium of filed complaints supporting the very claims you make in your letter," Breck wrote, addressing the Cahills' attorney.

"This is, however, only informed speculation on our part," Breck wrote. "As an aside to this, your claim that there is no legal access to the Flathead River from the former Red Bridge Road abutment is false, as Mr. Cahill knows from the City Council testimony and representatives from Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks."

During a City Council meeting this month, the Cahills asked that the council formally place the matter on its Sept. 7 agenda.

In June, though, Breck wrote that the city had no intention of meeting with the Cahills or their attorney.

"If Mr. Cahill believes that his claims have merit and that a court of competent jurisdiction would actually find in his favor, then, by all means, file a complaint and the city will defend itself accordingly," Breck wrote. "Until a court says otherwise, however, the city will continue to legally operate, maintain, improve and develop this area as a city park for the benefit of its residents."

The Cahills a few years ago badgered the city into abandoning a path easement along the river that the late Loren Kreck donated to the city.

Kreck was the former owner of the Cahills' home and a champion of public access to rivers. The Cahills claimed the path had invited vandalism to their property.

Mayor Don Barnhart was not pleased with the Cahills' tactics. He said Mark Cahill is simply trying to block public access to the Flathead River with round after round of complaints.

"Loren (Kreck) would roll over in his grave," Barnhart said.

The Cahills also have challenged a recent ruling by the Columbia Falls Board of Adjustment that would allow the owner of a property across the street from their home to rebuild apartments that burned down in a fire.

The Cahills claim it would be an "unbearable nuisance" to have the apartments rebuilt. That case is still pending in Flathead County District Court.