Unable to get the property-owner support needed to pave portions of Jensen and Berne roads, supporters of a Rural Special Improvement District for that area pitched an alternative plan to the Flathead County commissioners on Monday.

The proposed paving district has been chopped from 101 tracts of land and 2.4 miles of road surface to two smaller tracts — a northern project area with 39 tracts that would pave roughly one mile of Jensen Road north of Kelley Road and 3,616 feet of Berne Road, and a southern project with 16 tracts that would pave another 4,000 feet of Jensen Road.

“This is Plan B,” said Linda Smith, who has spent more than a year trying to garner support for paving of the dusty roads near Columbia Falls. “I’m not going back to Plan A.”

Initially, the citizen-initiated proposal would have created a district to pave three sections: Jensen Road from Kelley Road north to the intersection with Berne Road; Jensen Road from Montana 206 east to the corner where it turns north; and Berne Road from Montana 206 east to the end of Jensen and beginning of Mountain Creek Road, then north for one-quarter mile.

The new plan essentially cuts the project size in half and leaves an unpaved stretch along Jensen Road, but is the only way to maximize property-owner support and still get some paving done, Smith said.

A district can’t be formed if the owners of more than 50 percent of the parcels protest it.

The smaller district still would carry an estimated price tag of about $6,000 per parcel, spread over 15 to 20 years.

GETTING buy-in for the paving district has been a struggle since it first was proposed, Smith acknowledged.

“Some people think we’re heroes and some just want to shoot us,” she said.

A group of about a dozen neighbors persevered, divvying up the $3,650 it cost to complete a needed geotechnical report. Toby McIntosh of Jackola Engineering, who went through the Leadership Flathead program with Smith, has been helping with the paving proposal, with Jackola donating his services.

Homeowners in the Martini Lane area were adamantly opposed to the road district, so they were removed early on. Thirteen property owners in the Wildflower Acres and Vista Bonita Phase II subdivisions have signed waivers of protest, but even so, organizers couldn’t get enough support.

“We need 52 signatures to bring to you and we have 45,” Smith told the commissioners.

Smith and another organizer, Kay McDonald, asked if the county would be willing to increase its financial commitment to the project. A traffic study, estimated at $3,000, still needs to be completed to determine the amount of through traffic on Jensen and Berne roads.

In other road districts the county has paid a portion of the project cost commensurate with the percentage of through-traffic.

The southern project includes about three-quarters of a mile of Jensen Road that currently doesn’t meet county road standards and would need extensive subgrade work. The commissioners have said they’re willing to have the county pay for that road work.

Beyond that, the commissioners said they will meet with Flathead County Public Works Director Dave Prunty to further discuss the county’s involvement in the proposed district.

 Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com