Baldy residents grapple with washout

SANDPOINT — Makeshift repairs have made a washed-out section of Baldy Mountain Road passable, but landowners who rely on the road aren’t breathing any easier.

Landowners dug into their own pocketbooks to place fill in the washout to bridge the gap, but it’s still a temporary fix and a white-knuckled ride.

“This is a Band-Aid. I don’t know if it’s going to last a month or a week. It’s not going to last (forever), I can tell you that,” said Baldy Mountain resident Alan Andrews.

A wooden box culvert failed on April 27 amid soaking rains. The force of the water pushed through the road bed, rendering it impassible by passenger vehicles. A meager footpath remained at one point.

“There were people on motorcycles and four-wheelers that were coming across it — dangerously — and it was almost to where you couldn’t even walk across it got so narrow,” Andrews said.

The washout occurred nearly seven miles up the mountain road — several miles past where Bonner County’s maintenance zone ends. The rest of the road is public, but privately maintained because it’s too substandard to be adopted into the county’s road system.

Unless the road is improved to county standard and is accepted into the road maintenance system by county commissioners, landowners are on their own when it comes to repairs.

“Nobody has that kind of money,” said John Graylow, another Baldy Mountain resident.

It’s a dilemma that landowners on Bowen Arrow and Bear roads — two northside routes that were also washed out amid the deluges — are also grappling with.

“The word you’re probably struggling for is ‘screwed,’” said Andrews.

There are as many as 10 families upland of the washout, according to Andrews.

Landowners have appealed to the county that the washout is a matter of public safety rather than convenience, but officials say state law forbids the county from spending money on roads outside the maintenance system.

“It seems harsh. I didn’t like it either,” Commissioner Mike Nielsen said of when he learned of the prohibition upon taking office.

A vital node of the county’s emergency and law enforcement communication system sits atop Baldy’s 6,193-foot peak, which Andrews hoped would persuade officials to make sure the road is passable.

“My main concern is public safety,” said Andrews.

Someone placed boulders in the road and excavated tank traps into the road above the washout, apparently to prevent the general public from using it.

“I don’t know who did it or why,” Andrews said.

Gordon Bates, the county’s Road & Bridge director, said a resident brought in pictures depicting the obstructions.

“We asked him to go to the prosecuting attorney’s office regarding obstruction of a public roadway,” said Bates, explaining that it’s against the law to block a public right of way.