Stevensville River Park is a park

Town belatedly adds it to record

By Michael Howell

After all these years, either because it failed to do so in the beginning or because the records were lost, the Stevensville Town Council last week established without a doubt that River Park is indeed “dedicated parkland.”
The question of whether the 22-acre park was ever officially dedicated as a park became an issue when the adjoining landowner Roy Capp offered to swap some of his land located between the town’s park and the highway bridge for several acres of the town’s property at the north end of the park. The town’s attorney informed them upon request that the town council had the authority to sell or trade the current property by resolution with a majority vote, unless the property had been dedicated to some specific purpose, such as a park, in which case the decision would have to be placed on a ballot and decided by public vote.
Mayor Jim Crews initiated a search of the town’s records and could not find any official record of a dedication of the riverside property, which was originally used as a dump site. He did some research into newspaper archives at the Ravalli County Museum and discovered several stories published over the years chronicling the transition of the old dump site into a park complete with road, parking area, restroom and park tables, but fell short of finding any report of an actual dedication.
But it was not until the latest meeting that a definitive result was presented consisting of newspaper articles from both the daily and weekly newspapers documenting the ceremony in which the River Park, the adjoining River Trail and the pedestrian bridge over the slough, were all officially dedicated.
Conclusive evidence did appear prior to the Town’s latest meeting at which the council was scheduled to make some decision about the proposed land swap. The evidence was presented by Stevensville resident Loey Knapp and accompanied her letter in which she appealed to the council to recognize that the property was dedicated parkland and any decision about its disposition would have to go to a public vote.
During the Park Board’s consideration of the proposed land swap, Knapp had offered to outright buy the three and half acres of Capp land at its appraised value and give it to the town. She said it would preserve the town’s park, even increase it in size and solve the Capps’ problem with the historical use of the property as a public boat launch. That offer was refused by the Capps.
Knapp submitted to the town the copy of an invitation flyer for the park dedication held on Friday, May 31, 1996. The public was invited “to be in attendance as The River Trail and River Park will be formally dedicated by Governor Marc Racicot.” The dedication was held in Stevensville River Park. Knapp included copies of newspaper articles published at the time by the Bitterroot Star and the Ravalli Republic documenting the event.
The article in the Bitterroot Star, written by Victoria Howell in June of 1996, states, “A visit from Governor Marc Racicot was perhaps the high point of the formal dedication of the Stevensville River Trail and Park on Friday, May 31.” She quotes the Governor, who once lived in Florence, stating he could remember when the land now occupied by River Park was a “dump, literally, and as I look around today, I can see how humans triumph. (This project) reaffirms that there’s no obstacle Montanans cannot overcome.”
The article notes that, “On the dais with Governor Racicot were Stevensville Mayor Bill Meisner, Bitterroot National Forest Supervisor Steve Kelly, and Jim Weaver with Montana Highway Department.” All the agencies contributed to the project that cost a total of $100,000 and took nearly five years to complete.
Knapp noted in her comments that Fred Thomas, who emceed the ceremony, is quoted as saying, “The trail and park is for everyone, especially the youth. We deed this to you, the youth of our community.”
“The citizens of Stevensville are the ones that need to decide if they want to give up this legacy,” said Knapp. She also suggested that a committee be set up “with representatives from all the stakeholders including town government, FWP, the local park board, legal counsel and financial counsel, users of the fishing access site and users of River Park…” to come up with a plan and funding to resolve the fishing access issue raised by the Capps.
Mayor Crews thanked Knapp for her submissions and said, “This concludes my investigation into whether it is a park. There is no doubt in my mind. It’s a park.”
Other people also wrote and spoke in favor of recognizing the property as a dedicated park.
There were actually three separate agenda items addressing the river property that evening. Two of them were listed under unfinished business. One of those was a discussion/decision about placing the issue of the land swap on a special election ballot. The other involved discussion/decision of council approval of the land swap.
A motion was made and approved to move the new business item proposing a resolution dedicating the land known as River Park as an official park for the Town of Stevensville, to the front burner.
Councilor Bob Michalson questioned whether there needed to be any resolution since the park was already dedicated.
Mayor Crews explained that the fact that the park was dedicated at a public ceremony does not replace an official action by the town dedicating it to that purpose. He said the records were searched and no such dedication could be found. He said the passage of this resolution would correct that. Crews said that he would like to see all the parks get adopted by some official dedication.
“I don’t think it’s a bad move to dedicate River Park, but I’d like to see you follow through on all the parks,” said Crews.
Former Mayor Gene Mim Mack spoke in favor of the resolution.
“This is not the first time that we couldn’t find a piece of important paper to help us out in an important decision,” said Mim Mack. He said sometimes, for whatever reason, certain administrative acts don’t get done.
“The reason for the resolution,” he said, “is to codify the intent of the Council and the intent of the public when they dedicated this park publicly.”
The decision to approve the resolution “officially” establishing the River Park was approved on a unanimous vote.