Public comment period for FWP’s proposal to relocate their Sportsman’s Bridge Fishing Access Site from the east side of the Flathead River to the west will close today, Wednesday, May 22 at 5 p.m. Designs for the bridge, facilitated by MDT, and relocation of the fishing access site to Oldenburg Road, are set to be completed this year with construction slotted for 2025-2026. 

While previous public comment led FWP to consider moving the fishing access site in the first place, some residents on Oldenburg Road aren’t happy to see the access put on their quiet road.

“All the way down through Harbor Village and over there, there’s people that wanted it moved out of there… We’re just outnumbered by a million letters,” Oldenburg resident Dan Evans said.

Evans lives on and owns the four lots on the southern border of the proposed Sportsman Bridge boat launch and fishing access relocation. He has owned the property for 20 years. The land is his nest egg, a fail-safe that could be sold in an emergency or given to his children as inheritance, and Evans worried the proposed fishing access may affect property value. 

“When I heard that a petition was circulating to have the launch moved to our side of the river I thought, ‘What right do they have to move something that has always been there?!  They bought and built their houses knowing the boat launch is there and were fine with it.’  It upset me that people would defer something they seem not to want onto me and the other property owners and farmers on Oldenburg Road,” Evans wrote in a letter to FWP this April. 

The possibility of moving the access to the west side has already delayed the project. The proposed new location would cover roughly 18.2 acres, and provide access to around 1,000 feet of Flathead River shoreline and include a two-lane boat ramp, 38 truck-trailer parking spots and 10 standard vehicle parking spots. 

John Hormuth, whose family has owned a ranch on Oldenburg Road for three generations, added concerns about traffic. 

“Increased traffic and parking along the road, especially during busy months, will obstruct access to our farming operations, that is constantly moving all kinds of farming equipment in and out daily, thus creating safety hazards,” he wrote FWP. 

Three options for the fishing access were presented to the public, the preferred being the removal of the current site and creation of a larger site on the west side of the river. Taking no action, resulting in the removal of the fishing access, or modifying the current site were also options. 

Evans and Hormuth asserted that the cost to move the fishing access is the least financially responsible plan. 

In FWP’s Draft Environmental Assesment, purchase price for the west side location is estimated over $5 million. “MDT will contribute $4.4 million previously committed to the reconstruction and modification of the existing east side FAS towards acquisition of the west side property FWP would be responsible for contributing approximately $801,845 towards the purchase of the west side property and estimated $275,000 for development,” it reads. 

Spokespeople for FWP and MDT were contacted in regards to these complaints, but did not reply before presstime. 

“It’s hard to get people to join in and comment because it’s not really their problem,” Evans said. 

More information and submission of public comment for the fishing access can be found at fwp.mt.gov/public-notices/news/2024/apr/0423--sportsmans-bridge-fas-environmental-assessment, with information on the bridge project available at www.mdt.mt.gov/pubinvolve/flathead/.