Commissioners extend permit extension for Flathead Lake bridge

By SALLY FINNERAN 

Rising lake levels have stopped work on the bridge to Dockstader Island.

Work on the bridge halted at the end of last week when Flathead Lake rose to an elevation that prevents further work.

Under lakeshore protection regulations any work to be done in the lakebed must take place in low water.

Flathead County Planning and Zoning director B.J. Grieve said contractors told the planning department that the bridge is about 55 percent complete.

On Tuesday the planning office received a request from permit holders Roger Sortino and Jolene Dugan to extend the bridge construction permit, which expires June 1.

Sortino and Dugan were originally issued their permit to build the bridge and a dock on their property Holt Drive in Bigfork in March 2011.

While the commissioners have granted permit extensions for the bridge project in the past, they recently denied requests from Sortino and Dugan for extensions to four separate permits to build retaining walls. Those permits expire June 1. The commissioners approved an extension June 4.

The planning department also recently denied three requests for floodplain permits, which would have constructed three ponds behind the lakeshore protection zone, but in the floodplain.

Before work stopped, the project was cited with three violations. Two violations were cited by the Army Corps of Engineers for constructing a road that put fill in the lakeshore protection zone without a permit, and for fill in the wetlands without a permit. The Corps issued a cease and desist order until the permit situation was solved. 

Flathead County issued a violation for the rutting, gouging, and slicing of the lakebed that was caused by construction machinery, which violated their existing permit. 

 “We take it very seriously, the rutting, gouging, and slicing, because it can release sediment,” Grieve said. “But you also have to keep it in perspective. That kind of rutting from mechanized equipment is pretty common.”

Grieve pointed out that even footprints left from walking in the lakebed can release some sediment when waters rise.

Grieve said that soon after the county issued the violation, measures were taken to smooth the lakebed, both what was still above water, and what was now under water.

Grieve said generally when lakeshore development permits are violated by rutting and gouging, they issue a violation and ask for the developer to repair the lakebed. 

Once that’s been done they consider the issue resolved. “We will follow up on the restoration they did and we will also follow up to make sure the restoration work is successful next fall,” Grieve said. Litigation is pending against the county over the legality of issuing the permit for the bridge in the first place. The Community Association for North Shore Conservation alleges that the permit itself violates the Lakeshore Protection Act.