by Diane Thomas-Rupert, Stevensville
The North Burnt Fork Rd traffic continues to become heavier each year with no effort to pave. However, the residents who live on the road are expected to pay more and more for dust abatement as the public use of the road becomes greater. There appears to be a lot of money in the infrastructure bill or maybe some other programs to improve or repair roads. So why is the gravel portion on North Burnt Fork not paved? Why does the pavement stop at Hollibaugh? How much of the traffic continues east from there?
If the road is paved so residents won’t have to pay for dust abatement, there will be even more reason to do something about speeding.
Along with the heavy traffic and dust comes excessive speed! North Burnt Fork is used like a shortcut to go as fast as possible to get to a destination in the shortest possible time. A person driving at that high rate of speed cannot stop fast enough. These speeders need to be dealt with.
Just about every day when I see someone flying past, I say to myself; who or what must die on North Burnt Fork Road before the Ravalli County Commissioners do something about speeding? A few weeks ago, it was a fawn, two days ago it was a female wild turkey with six chicks that was killed. When is it going to be a child getting on or off the school bus, one of the young girls who walks dogs, a jogger or one of my employees who must walk across the road? My husband driving the tractor had a close call just this morning. However, if the truck had hit that tractor, it may well have been the speeder that was killed.
I just cannot stress enough that all of us who live on North Burnt Fork Rd and drive out our driveways, use it to walk on, or to cross to get the mail and the children getting on and off the school bus are in danger of being killed or seriously injured. Ravalli County Commissioners, please do something about this.
It seems there are various things that could be done. No, posting a patrol person somewhere on the road occasionally is not the answer. You must have access to professionals that know how to solve this problem. So have them help you. The present situation is not acceptable!
Thank you in advance for considering paving and dealing with speeders.