Users of the “Big Ditch”, owned and operated by the Bitter Root Irrigation District, voted overwhelmingly to allow the district to sell and issue a $1.7 million bond to help pay for repairs and improvements to the pipeline that carries water from Lake Como over the river and under Highway 93 and the railroad tracks to irrigate a total of 16,665 acres.
It was a record turnout with 64% of the 956 registered voters returning a ballot. Each irrigator who returned a ballot got a vote for every acre of irrigated land. The tally was 8,846 in favor of the bond and 923 against.
The 30-year bond of $1,773,976 will cover a big portion of the cost of the project, but not all of it. The total project is estimated to cost $2,448,976. The balance of the costs will be paid from grants in the aggregate amount of $375,000, funds of the District in the amount of $300,000.
The project will result in a new bridge that spans the entire river from bank to bank. The current bridge is being undermined and threatened by log jams every flood season that occur at the bridge abutments situated in the river itself. The free standing bridge will eliminate that threat.