County holds meeting on flooding

Representatives from the Hill County Commission, Road Department and Disaster and Emergency Services held a public forum Wednesday evening to discuss the ongoing flooding situation in Hill County and next steps for the community.

Hill County DES Coordinator Amanda Frickel said the county is still in the very early stages of the flooding season and the road department is already working practically non-stop, but there is still a tremendous amount of assessment and documentation to be done.

Hill County Commissioner Mark Peterson said he and his fellow commissioners intend to declare a state of emergency in Hill County, which he said Liberty, Blaine and now Valley counties have all done as well.

Peterson said if the entire area declares an emergency and a certain threshold of damage is met within those communities they can ask the governor to request that President Joe Biden declare a federal disaster in the area, which will allow them to use FEMA funds for repairs.

Frickel said even with all of that it will take five or six months for conversations with the state about paying for repairs to begin because of all the documentation they need and hoops they need to jump through to get funding for some of these repairs.

Hill County Road Department Supervisor Shane Huston said the department will make temporary fixes to roads in the meantime, but permanent fixes may take a while to get funded, and Peterson said many of the roads will not be done by this summer.

Peterson said the commission will also probably vote to impose a 2 mil levy which will raise $55,000 for the road department to start making the necessary repairs, which it can’t do on its current budget.

“This is not a fun time for any of us,” he said.

He said they are better-prepared for a disaster declaration now than they were in years past, the road department having upgraded their book keeping system which will make tracking of work and dollars much easier, but they still need the help of the community to keep up.

Peterson also said the road department has been coordinating well with the rest of the county and has been doing a great job assessing the scope of the damage even as they work as hard as they can to fix it.

Peterson and fellow Commissioner Jake Strissel said anyone who spots a problem area can send that information along with photos to the road department and every bit of extra information they can get helps.

He also asked people in Hill County to be wary of both their speed and the weight of their vehicles on the damaged roads.

He said a lot of dips have formed in the roads and the faster people go and the heavier their vehicles are the more damage the road will develop, so they are asking that people hauling loads of grain, or other things like that, consider taking lighter loads, and for people in general to slow down on the roads and heed the flags the road department has set up.

Peterson also asked that people not attempt to repair county roads with their own materials.

He said they appreciate the sentiment and sympathize with the people needing to get to their destinations as quickly as possible, but unless the material used for repairs comes from approved sites and is done correctly they will not be reimbursed for that work which means everyone in the county is on the hook for more tax money.

Montana DES Central District Field Officer Ed Greiberis said having non-county employees fixing county roads also opens up all kinds of liability issues as well, so, under the current state and federal rules, it’s better for everyone long-term to let the county handle things as best it can.

Much of the public comments portion of the meeting was spent objecting to these requests, with many audience members saying they wanted to fix their local roads themselves, with many saying there are places that they just can’t get to no matter what roads they take.

Some asked if they could make temporary fixes to the roads then dig the areas they fixed back out when the county gets to them so they can still get reimbursed.

Members of the panel said based on their current reading of the rules that is not possible, but Frickel said she would look into whether there is some middle ground that would make something like that possible.

“None of us make those rules,” Peterson said.

One member of the audience said involving “the government” will only make things worse anyway.

“You’re preaching to the choir,” Greiberis said. “I’m not a fan of FEMA but that’s what we’ve got to deal with.”

The other big topic of discussion during public comments was how the county planned to prioritize the roads they address, though this topic prompted more questions from the audience than objections.

Huston said his top priority is the main roads and making sure people can get in and out of town. After that, there are a number of factors that go into those decisions.

Peterson said population, the extent of damage, whether the road is part of a school bus route and many other things can go into decisions like that.

Some members of the audience expressed concern about when their local roads would be addressed and Huston said he understands their concerns and why they feel as strongly as they do, but Hill County has 1,800 miles of roads and he has 15 employees to cover it all.

One audience member also asked about Montana Senate Bill 442 which would allocate funds from the taxes on recreational marijuana to Montana roads.

Strissel said the bill, sponsored by Montana Sen. Mike Lang, R-Malta, hasn’t been approved by the Montana House yet, but he’s testified in favor of it thrice, and it has the support of Sen. Russ Tempel, R-Chester, and Rep. Paul Tuss, D-Havre, and the outlook is optimistic that it will pass.