Disc golfers in Rivers Edge Park draw complaint

Just a few weeks after a disc golf course was installed in River’s Edge Park in Columbia Falls, it is drawing complaints from other park users.

In a letter to city council last week and again in person, resident Linda Miller said she was recently walking along the boardwalk when she heard a disc whiz through the air.

“If I had not been moving away from that area I would have been hit,” she said.

She said she asked the people who were playing on the new disc golf course what they were doing, but they ignored her, as well as others who also asked the same question.

She claimed the metal  baskets (which are the targets for the thrown discs) are too close to nearby walking trails.

“This is the first time I’ve felt unsafe in River’s Edge Park. Frankly I was stunned,” she said in her letter to council.

The city approved the 9-hole course, where people try to throw Frisbees into chain link baskets back in May. The city council approved the measure after a request by the Flathead Disc Golf Association.

The course  was finalized earlier this fall. It includes concrete pads and the baskets are placed in both open areas and the woods. And there are some baskets close to walking paths and some launch pads close to walking paths as well.

On one hole, the golfers have to throw the Frisbee across the walking path to reach the basket. On another hole, if they miss, the Frisbee would zip across the path.

The park is primarily used by pedestrians and people walking their dogs or fishing in the Flathead River or the park’s stocked fishing ponds. It is one of the most popular parks in the city.

Mayor Don Barnhart sympathized with Miller’s complaint and he noted signage with the course has not been installed yet. But having said that, disc golfers have to have some respect for the public as well.

“We allowed them to come in and recreate,” he said. “But they have to do it in a good manner.”