Weed district, cemetery district levies sent to ballots

A proposed mill levy increase to fund the Hill County Weed District rejected by voters in the fall will be on the ballot again when and if a special congressional election is held, Hill County Commissioner Mike Wendland said Monday.

He said the commissioners unanimously approved a resolution to allow the mill levy on the ballot with the names of the major party candidates vying to complete the term of Rep. Ryan Zinke.

Hill County Commissioner Diane McLean said Tuesday that a resolution to put a mill levy on the ballot for the Hill County Public Cemetery District was also approved by the commissioners. The money would be used to help maintain the nine cemeteries throughout the district.

Wendland said that, like the levy requested by the cemetery district, the weed district will have the ability to levy up to four mills, but can levy less in a given year as funds are needed.

Hill County Weed and Mosquito District Supervisor Terry Turner said if it passes, the mill levy will amount to an additional $5.40 in taxes on a house valued at $100,000 and $10.80 for one valued at $200,000.

Voters rejected the weed district levy increase in November, 56-44 percent.

Turner said the money is needed because the cost of controlling noxious weeds has risen. He said that when the district was established in the 1970s, the Montana Department of Agriculture had 15 weeds on the noxious weed list they were charged with controlling. Since then, 18 more weeds have been placed on the list, but without a corresponding increase in funding.

“So we are still operating back in the 1980 dollars,” Turner said.

He said that in recent years, a series of floods have battered the area increasing the spread of weeds including in Beaver Creek Park.

Money is needed for herbicides needed to wipe out the weeds, many of which are invasive species of vegetation not native to the area, some of which can grow as tall as 13 feet and siphon off nutrients from crops and other vegetation, he said.

Turner said that more poisonous weeds in the area have begun moving in. He said taking action to prevent the expansion to those weeds is like fighting a fire before it spreads.

“It’s a lot easier for prevention and to keep them in check rather than let the fire burn,” he said.

He said the cost of combating noxious weeds is high because many of them are perennial plants and the lack of natural enemies allows those weeds to expand.  

“Once they get a foothold they take over all the other vegetation in the area, so it’s kind of critical to keep those plants out and keep … a good balance of plants out there,” he said.

He said battling aquatic weeds, vegetation that spreads and clogs up waterways, can cost anywhere between $1,000 and $2,000 per acre, depending on the depth of the water.

“The plants become such a mass that things have a hard time swimming into them, people have actually gone out and drowned because they have got caught, entangled in the plant mass,” he said.

Four mill levies went before Hill County voters in November. Aside from a 2 mill levy increase for the Havre-Hill County Library, all were defeated.

The cemetery measure was defeated, 53-47 percent, and a 10- mill levy requested by the County Comissioners was defeated 55-45 percent in November.

The 10-mill levy will not be back for the special election.

“We thought it will be a busy enough ballot without ours,” Wendland said.

He said the county needs to educate voters more about why the mill levies are needed before putting them back on the ballot.

Last November’s 10-mill levy would have been used for infrastructure and for technology upgrades to county buildings.