Ronan to vote on library district
Daniel Martynowicz
Tom McDonald explains the many aspects of the proposed U.S. highway 93 improvements and their potential impacts on Ronan’s park to the city council.
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RONAN - Ronan's city council had much to discuss during the March 23 meeting.
Open container applications were accepted for a Mission Valley Mariners fundraiser, the University of Montana spring football scrimmage Apr. 12-13, a Western Montana Water Users Association meeting in May and Ronan's Agriculture Appreciation Dinner.
In addition, the council will allow tailgating during the Griz scrimmage weekend near Ronan's football stadium.
Library board chair Frank Delgado gave an update on the city library's quest to create a new tax district. Librarian Jolaina Cramer said in the past that the City of Ronan was forced to cut library funding from around $51,000 in 2007 to $17,000 this year.
According to library employees and board members, it is nearly impossible to run a library when funds have diminished at such a rapid rate. Library officials began the process of creating a new library district through the Lake County Commissioners office last year.
“Well, we're on the ballot and we hope everybody votes,” Delgado said during the meeting. “We need to get the library district created.”
The ballots will be mail-in and sent out with the Ronan-Pablo School District No. 30 voting ballots this spring, as the new library district mirrors the existing school district. Ballots will be mailed April 18 and are due back May 7 by 8 p.m.
“All of us are really hoping that it will pass,” Cramer said. “We're really hoping that people will vote for it so that we can keep our library and keep it open for all our patrons that use it every day.”
In addition, Ronan Parks Board vice-chair Tom McDonald attended the meeting to speak to the council on the proposed U.S. Highway 93 design and the potential impacts it might have on the park. McDonald explained that in the 1950s, it was easy for highways to expand into parkland and refuges because there were no houses in the open spaces, making it easier to condemn or repurpose the land.
“Then everybody looked around and said, 'Where did our parks go; where did all of our open space go?' It's very difficult for a community to replace that,” he explained.
In response, the Federal Highway Act was signed into law in 1960. The law made it very difficult for the federal highway system to take any 4-F property (parkland, refuge, etc.) without mitigating it for the loss of use, “and not just an equal loss, but make it even better than it was,” McDonald said.
The Montana Department of Transportation's environmental impact statement performed on Ronan failed to identify several impacts the proposed highway would have on the park and its use.
“When they looked at the analysis of the one-way, they said that because they weren't going to take any right-of-way through the one-way southbound traffic, there was no impact. That is incorrect, because it will change the use of the park in varying ways,” McDonald said.
These changes include new visitors stopping at the park and using it as a rest stop, problems with children being able to safely move around the street, loss of parking for events normally held at the park and increased traffic noise.
“They didn't acknowledge any of that in the EIS,” McDonald said, adding that there are at least two more 4-F properties that will be impacted but were not listed in the EIS.
“This is our town,” he said. “I've used this park since 1976, and we have one shot at this. You don't want the highway department to steamroll over this; you have one shot to make this right. This is it.”
Council members are reviewing several written proposals and recommendations submitted by the parks board. Council members will add any additional requests and recommendations and schedule a meeting sometime in early April to meet with the park board regarding the proposals.
“I'm hoping that Tom, as a representative for the city parks board, can help lead the city council through deciding what is best as far as 4-F mitigation,” Ronan Parks and Recreation director Jennifer Rolfsness said. “He has a great deal of knowledge and experience with 4-F mitigation in the past.”
