Lake County Park Board meetings are usually quiet affairs, but the last two, not so much.

The board met in July at the cherry packing plant on Finley Point to discuss small chunks of county-owned park land on the peninsula, and especially the six parcels known collectively as the Mellett Point County Parks.

They faced a large crowd of vocal landowners who were clearly not in favor of any efforts by the park board to expand public access to the park lands at the very tip of Finley Point. Last Thursday’s meeting in the commission chambers was less testy, but still reflected an ongoing skirmish over private property and access to adjacent public lands.   

The park board first caught the ire of Mellett Point property owners last winter over a grant application to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks that, had it been submitted and approved, would have provided $100,000 plus a match of 20% for improvements at Mellett Point. The county commissioners, who must sign off on any grant proposal, quashed it after a group of Mellett Point residents showed up to protest any projects that might expand public use of the park land.

The meeting in July was an attempt by the park board to shift the conversation away from what residents don’t want to what improvements they would support. Some property owners insisted that the county-owned land was initially part of the subdivision of Mellett Point and was intended to provide lake access for those who bought interior lots.

Bob Gannon, who owns a lakeshore home adjacent to one of the public parcels, suggested the park board consider selling parcels to raise funds to maintain other, more accessible park lands, and said that strategy is mentioned in the 2013 park plan.

His proposal was roundly rejected by the park board, and may have helped instigate the higher-than-usual attendance at last week’s meeting.

Park board chair Janet Sucha reiterated Thursday that the park board “has never had any intention of trying to sell any of those park lands. We just want to try to maintain them and keep them open to the public.”

“In my opinion, lake access is special,” said park board member and tribal representative Rich Janssen. “And 1% of the people on the lake control 99% of the lake access. We cannot lose more lake access.”

Sucha also noted that the Mellett Point parcels were partially logged in 2024 to remove dead and insect-infested trees, and that the project left burn holes and slash piles that need to be cleaned up, and areas of erosion and weed incursions that require mitigation. The grant, if approved, could have helped pay for those projects.

Underfunded, overused

Lack of money is a persistent issue since the county has no designated budget for parks. Nor does it have a dedicated park crew, relying instead on the county’s small maintenance team to oversee sites scattered across Lake County. Priorities are the larger ones including Chuck Dixon Park off Rocky Point Road, the fishing access at Elmo and the Dayton Park.

County commissioner Gale Decker brought up the idea of trying to pass a countywide mill levy to raise money for park improvements and enforcement, since an ongoing complaint is that people who use county parks often ignore or even tear down posted rules. Users sometimes overcrowd parks with lake access, don’t always pack out their garbage, start fires when no fire rings are present, play loud music and stay beyond the posted hours.

“A little bit of enforcement goes a long way,” Decker said.

Mimi Werner, who owns property on Finley Point with seasonal lake access, says the declining lake level has forced her to use some of the county parks, especially late in the season.

“It’s such a great asset to have, particularly with the lake levels going down so early. We don't have access to our beach but maybe two-and-a-half months now a year,” she said. “And having this little extra special place is really significant for us.”

She noted that visitors to the area also use the county parks to access the lake, “So I would hate to see it get lost.”

Amy Knudsen told the board she was born and raised in Polson, “and we have never had access to the lake. This Mellett Point Park has just been a godsend to us.”

She suggested that volunteers could be recruited to pull weeds, rake gravel, “or do whatever. I for one would be happy to go out there and help with that.”

Other meeting attendees also offered creative remedies for taking care of the parks. Suggestions included allowing the equivalent of a park host of “ambassador” to camp and care for the parcels, giving a conservation easement to a group that would then maintain the areas, or establishing the equivalent of a tax increment finance district where local taxpayers would pick up the tab for maintenance.

To sell or not to sell 

Commissioner Bill Barron acknowledged that the parks need more funding. “How many deputies do you want us to lay off?” he asked. “I mean, that's the kind of decisions we have to make, because the Sheriff's Office has the largest budget by far.”

While he said he’s opposed to selling property, he added, “if we have a piece of land that's basically useless that we can get $100,000 for and put into the park fund to help develop some of the other areas, should we be looking at something like that?”

For Gannon, the answer is yes to selling some of what he calls “the hodgepodge of park lands” on Mellett Point. He alluded again to the Lake County Park Plan published in 2013, which mentions the possibility of selling some of the parcels “of little value” and using those proceeds to benefit other park lands.

“It's not like it's a wild and crazy idea,” he said. “It's already identified in your plan.”

He pointed out that no one on the park board lives on Finley Point and said few of the meeting attendees “really know what the park situation is out there.”

He said he had taken a photo in July showing seven cars parked in a space that can barely accommodate one, and that six had out-of-state license plates.

He encouraged people at the meeting to read the park plan (which is posted on the county’s website). “It has a lot of great information in it and it doesn't forbid sensible, rational decisions to dispose of parcels, receive proceeds, and then use those proceeds throughout the county,” he said.

Janssen countered that all of the parcels on Mellett Point are valuable. “You don't just dispose of it.”

Tony Hadley, who lives adjacent to one of the lakefront park parcels on Mellett Point, said he was reassured by the opinions expressed by the park board and the commissioners “that the intention here is not to overdevelop the parks or to try to bring more people in but to let that occur naturally.”

He said he doesn’t personally object to people using public lands in the area, but that the grant application alarmed him and his neighbors because it mentioned fire pits, camping and serving as a possible overflow from the nearby state park.

“Welcome, come down, it's a beautiful view,” he said, “but we don't want it intensely developed.”

Several residents of the area also pointed to the challenges fire poses to visitors and homeowners alike, and that more usage and traffic increases fire danger and clogs already limited escape routes.

Billie Lee, the county’s grant manager, pointed out that the county could apply for the FWP grant again when applications open in November, and asked “what kind of improvements people would like to see out there?”

She also pointed out that if there isn’t broad-based support for improvements at Mellett Point, the county could apply to use the grant for other parks that also need help.

Near the end of the meeting, Sucha asked for an “aye” from those who would support an application that sought money for signage, repair of trails and an aging stairway, maintenance, weed control, revegetation and clean-up projects at Mellett Point.

She was greeted with a nearly “Aye,” and one “Nay” from a woman who said she’d need to see the application before supporting it.

In response to questions about whether the public could review the draft application, Sucha predicted it should be available by the December meeting.

Board members also pointed out that the park board has two openings for three-year terms. Letters of interest are due by Sept. 22, and should be addressed to the Lake County Commissioners, 106 4th Avenue East, Polson, Montana 59860. For more information, contact the commissioners at 406-883-7204 or [email protected].

    Bob Gannon referred to language in the 2013 Lake County Park Plan to defend his suggestion that the county sell a parcel on Mellett Point to generate more income for county-owned parks. "It's not a wild and crazy idea," he said. (Kristi Niemeyer/Leader)

    Map of Mellett Point Parks, located at the tip of Finley Point, as shown on Lake County's website.