Lakeside school officials and community residents pleaded with the Flathead County commissioners on Monday to begin maintaining a steep 1,500-foot stretch of Adams Street, a key connector road that runs past Lakeside School.

The county has declined to plow and sand the west end of Adams Street and a short portion of Grayling Road based on a 1983 policy not to accept new roads into the county’s road maintenance network. The maintenance of new roads built in county right of way typically has fallen to homeowner associations of the subdivisions those roads serve.

But Lakeside residents say the circumstances surrounding this particular road warrant the county making an exception to its policy.

“This is an extraordinary situation,” School District 29 Superintendent Paul Jenkins told the commissioners, explaining the close proximity of the school to the hazardous road. “We don’t want a tragedy to occur.”

The unmaintained west end of Adams and the extension of Grayling provide a key connector for the Spurwing and Troutbeck Rise subdivisions and Bierney Creek residents to central Lakeside.

Jenkins and others shared numerous reports of vehicles sliding down icy Adams Street during the winter. In one case a propane truck slid backwards down the steep incline, Jenkins said.

Cherokee Merklinger, a mother of four, said she witnessed a motorist last winter skidding on a patch of ice and plowing into her front yard, nearly hitting a fire hydrant.

That unmaintained portion of Adams was built at 15 percent grade after the county granted a variance to accommodate the steep incline.

“It’s a great sledding hill,” Jenkins said.

The commissioners did not discuss the road maintenance request or ask any questions.

In October 2012 the commissioners voted 2-1 not to accept the sections of Adams and Grayling for maintenance, largely because they felt it would set a precedent for requests from other citizens to maintain stretches of road built in the county right of way.

The county currently maintains Grayling Road to the top of the hill and Adams to the intersection with Brass Road.

Developer Charles Lapp built the stretches of Grayling and Adams now in question when he created his Spurwing Estates subdivision several years ago.

Lapp and then-county Road Department Superintendent Charlie Johnson signed a memo dated Sept. 20, 2005, that stated the improvements to Adams and Grayling “will provide much-needed connectivity for the community and will work to filter traffic through Lakeside onto Hwy. 93.”

About 260 vehicles use the steep road daily, according to traffic data. 

Lapp reportedly sanded and maintained the roads at his own expense from 2007 through 2011, but stopped maintaining the roads more than a year ago.

Lapp, who could not be reached for comment, notified the Spurwing property owners in early 2012 that the homeowners association was being turned over to the lot owners, according to Ed Repa, president of the Spurwing Estates Homeowners Association. Repa wrote to then-Commissioner Dale Lauman in March 2012, saying he believes the memo signed by Lapp and Johnson “states clearly that the roads were not solely for the Spurwing subdivision.”

David Altic, who lives on the south side of Adams Street next to Spurwing and has pushed for the county to assume maintenance of Adams and Grayling, said Spurwing largely failed to materialize, with only four homes built in the first 31-lot phase.

“It was apparently hoped-for that the road maintenance would be paid for by the Spurwing Homeowners Association, with the assumption being made that Spurwing would be a success,” Altic said. “That has not been the case ... From what I’ve learned, no written agreement was made to cover road maintenance in the event the Spurwing development failed. So, we are now saddled with a main thoroughfare in Lakeside which, in my opinion, has become a public safety issue.”

Lauman, who last year voted in favor of the county assuming maintenance of Adams and Grayling, said Monday he believes the Lakeside Community Council needs to hold a public hearing and weigh in on the issue. He believes a solution can be found.

Craig Seminoff, an attorney who lives in Lakeside, said there are extraordinary circumstances in this case because the county gave permission for the steep grade, which he said “creates a clear and present danger” because of the proximity to the school.

“You can grant an exemption, I believe,” Seminoff told the commissioners. “You don’t have to change policy. I call on you to protect and defend the children.”

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