Grant sought for East Spring Creek Road improvements
CLARK FORK - Bonner County is applying for an Idaho Department of Environmental Quality grant to shore up parts of East Spring Creek Road.
County commissioners are scheduled to discuss the grant request at their weekly board meeting on Tuesday morning.
"There are a couple places along the road where it goes along the creek there that need to be stabilized," Commission Chairman Cary Kelly said.
The total amount of the grant is $238,000 with a local match of $95,200, according to Kelly.
In addition to stabilization, there will also be some road surface improvements and culvert installation.
Unrelenting rains caused Lightning Creek to eat away at the East Spring Creek Road in 2006. The washout forced the road to be closed, which cut off access to scores of residents in the valley.
The narrow and winding road was also a key concern among valley residents when a camp retreat was proposed at Shadow Valley Lane. Opponents of the project contended that the road could not support increased traffic and crashes would be inevitable.
There was also concern that bulky emergency vehicles would have trouble traversing the road.
The camp retreat was ultimately turned down by the county commission.
The road improvements have nothing to do with a contentious and ongoing legal battle over a road which feeds into East Spring Creek Road, according to Kelly.
The county is being sued by landowners over plans to extend East Spring Creek Road across a couple's private property to ensure there is public access to the Liberty Heights subdivision. The county contends there has been a long-standing public right of way through Michael and Elizabeth Deen's property, which the couple is challenging in court.
"This doesn't relate to the warfare that's going on up north," Kelly said of the grant.