While Lake County and the City of Polson are at odds over which entity is responsible for fixing the paving on 13th Ave. E., officials from both governments agree it needs to be fixed.  

Since the new pavement was rolled out last fall on 13th, the City of Polson engineering contract company, HDR Engineering, has reported settlement in the road, otherwise known as the initiation of a pothole, along with other issues such as cracks, distress and drainage deficiencies. 

In 2024, the city signed a memorandum of understanding with Lake County to repair portions of 13th Avenue East and 11th Street East. Upon completion of the project, the city agreed to annex those roads, which the county was interested in because both are in the middle of the city. 

The agreement detailed that the county would provide labor and machinery, an estimated cost of $12,000, and the city would provide materials, project management, engineering design, shoulder grading, traffic control and sewer and water-lid adjustments.  

According to the MOU, the combined cost for the city's 13th Avenue and 11th Street bid was just over $100,000. After the issues arose with the road, City Manager Ed Meece said during the April 20 city commission meeting that he wasn’t comfortable recommending annexation until it was fixed.  

At the monthly City-County meeting in March, the road issues were a point of discussion during which Zach Maassen, the city’s contract engineer, explained the depressions in the road, paved-over manholes and other problems.  

Maassen said they provided the county with recommendations for preparing the existing roadway and preparing for asphalt, and “it doesn’t look like maybe some of those recommendations were followed.”  

He added that the failing pavement can be attributed to the vegetation removed on the sides of the roadway, which affects stormwater drainage.  

“I also don't believe that the roadway was properly prepared before the asphalt was laid down,” Maassen said.  

He added that the city’s “aspects of the project” were completed when they installed a sewer main line in the same area about six months prior to paving, and he said at that time the compacting work was completed to get the “roadway ready for pavement.” Maassen believes repairing the road would require removing damaged sections, proper grading and new asphalt. 

According to HDR Engineering, the repair cost is estimated between $170,000 and $290,000. 

Jay Garrick, the county road department director, said during the meeting that he disagrees with Maassen and that the large area that is dipping “looks like classic trench settlement.” 

“We grounded the existing surface; we graded that surface; we watered and compacted it quite a bit,” Garrick said.  

Garrick added that the settlement is not a result of the county's work and that the county met its responsibilities under the MOU. During the conversation about the project's separate responsibilities, Meece said he didn’t want to get caught up in a rabbit hole of who did or didn’t do certain project items.  

“What we have is a road that's inadequate for the purposes that it needs to serve,” Meece said. “And I guess the question is, are the city and county going to work together to remediate the problems that exist?”  

After discussing possible fixes, Meece asked Maassen to provide a mitigation plan and ballpark estimate for the next meeting.  

In a separate interview, Commissioner Bill Barron said the county decided to seek its own engineer assessment of the situation from Shari Johnson, a local engineer who previously worked for the City of Polson.  

A decent road  

During the most recent city-county meeting on Tuesday, May 13, Commissioner Barron expressed his interest in reaching an amicable outcome, but he isn’t sure what that would entail.  

Commissioner Gale Decker said this issue may be something the county should take up with Meece’s successor, since Meece served his last day as city manager Friday, May 15, and interim city manager George Simpson takes over until September.  

However, Meece said he doesn’t encourage pushing the issue to a later date because both of them have constituents who depend on that route for daily transportation.  

“Just kicking the can down the roads, all that really does is increase their time of putting up with a situation that really comes as no fault of their behavior,” Meece said.  

Meece added that the road failure may have been caused by multiple factors, not just one issue that a party was responsible for. While it is interesting to spend time figuring out what happened, he said the real issue is a “not reliable, safe and consistent” road.  

“It’s only going to deteriorate,” Meece said. “If we can at least agree to put it in a state that folks can travel a little more consistently and safely, maybe that’s the best we can get to right now.”  

Garrick said the best temporary option for now would be to grind up, reshape and compact the asphalt as the current driving surface.  

Decker added that their engineer said the permanent fix would require further engineering to divert water beneath the roadway, as water is running down the hillside rather than along the roadway. He said the roadway will never hold up correctly if that is not completed.  

The HDR engineering report included additional geotechnical recommendations for this project repair, along with a culvert or valley gutter.  

Meece suggested that it might be best for the county contract engineer, HDR, the city’s public works director and Garrick to meet and discuss a temporary solution, and Barron said he agreed.  

In the end, both parties agreed they wanted an amicable answer, but Decker said he doesn’t want one that will cost them $250,000.