By Michael Howell
After five years of haggling over who is responsible for maintaining the amenities that were installed when Highway 93 was expanded to four lanes, the County and the Montana Department of Transportation have finally arrived at a potential Memorandum of Understanding that would describe the various responsibilities. The County Commissioners approved a draft MOU with a couple modifications at a meeting last week. If MDT agrees to those last minute changes it would be a done deal.
Back when the highway widening project was being considered, a focus group was formed in each community along the way to help MDT formulate the specific plans for the project as it passed through each community. These amenities included landscaping along the roadside as well as in the new medians that were being proposed. It could also include lighting, sidewalks, a pedestrian/bicycle pathway and benches. Each focus group helped design the amenities for their various communities. But MDT was only making a deal with Ravalli County and wasn’t going to make separate contracts with every entity along the road. The focus groups appealed to the County to accept responsibility for maintaining the amenities and promised to provide the resources and people to do it. But no agreement was ever put in writing.
Maintenance of the amenities began to unravel immediately for a number of reasons. The use of community volunteers in the median was a problem for MDT because of liability concerns. They insisted that workers in the median be county employees due to the degree of safety training that was required. Volunteers were frustrated and the County was unwilling to take on the costs.
When trees began to die in the medians and along the roadsides, Commissioner J.R. Iman stepped in to try and maintain as much as he could, but he believed the solution might be to abandon the landscaping in the medians and go to native grass. The irrigation installed in the medians at Stevensville and Florence was abandoned. But the communities of Florence and Victor fought hard to keep their amenities and were successful primarily because they were located within existing county park districts. It was working through the Florence Park District that the community got some help from the county in handling the snow removal on the bike path through their community. The Victor Park District adamantly defended its plan and was able to keep the trees that were planted in those medians.
With no park district on the north edge of Hamilton, the landscaping between the Veterans Bridge and the City limits along the roadside began to suffer. But after years of unsettled discussion about it, the county has recently arrived at a formal agreement to transfer responsibilities for the landscaping along that stretch to the City of Hamilton.
Iman said that the current MOU being considered with MDT was agreeable to the officials that they had been negotiating with but if any changes were made it would have to get further approval from MDT.
“The state has come around to what we think is sustainable for the county,” said Iman.
Deputy County Attorney Dan Browder presented the highlights of the agreement. He said the MOU describes the county’s responsibilities as including maintenance of all the non-grass landscaping such as trees, bushes and shrubs. The state agreed to take care of the pavement and the base of the pedestrian/bike path but the county would handle snow removal. The state also agreed to do the mowing which the county was reluctant to take on, especially with the ASHTO (national safety) requirement that it not be allowed to grow over four inches high.
The county was also given the authority to close the path in case of emergency.
The state also wanted the county to maintain the landscaping up to ASHTO standards. According to Browder, the county did not want to be held to any standards but reached a “compromise.” The language stating that the county “shall manage to minimize dead and dying debris and maintain safety and adequate sight distance according to ASHTO” was modified to delete the “shall” and use the term “guidance” instead.
“The compromise was to mention ASHTO but use the word ‘guidance’ rather than ‘shall’, but it will still be a legal standard that the county will have to meet,” said Browder.
Commissioner Jeff Burrows said that it didn’t seem like much of a compromise since the county would still have to meet the standard despite the changes in wording.
The county agreed to the MOU with a couple of changes. They clarified that any non-planted trees in the right of way were the responsibility of the state. They also amended the MOU to clarify that the County Park Boards are extensions of the county and should not be considered “other people and organizations,” who are not technically allowed any authority to act in the highway right of way.
The commissioners approved the amended MOU unanimously but the changes will still have to get approval from the state before the MOU can be put into place.
Representatives of the Florence and Victor park districts clarified that if the county was looking at the park districts as the entities responsible for the highway amenities within their districts then the commissioners should consider providing the funding necessary to actually do the job.