For the week of March 5 - 11, 2003

Commissioners oppose Craters road project

 

---

By GREG MOORE
Express Staff Writer

The Blaine County Commission on Monday agreed to oppose the immediate improvement of a 41-mile section of primitive road that passes through Craters of the Moon National Monument.

Blaine County commissioners agreed unanimously to send letters to the Minidoka-Cassia Transportation Committee and to Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, suggesting that improvement of the road await completion of the management plan for the expanded monument.

"They’ve got a whole public process they have to go through," Commissioner Mary Ann Mix said. "I think they’re jumping the gun."

Commissioner Dennis Wright raised concerns that an improved gravel road may be just a prelude to construction of a paved highway. He contended that the long-time goal of Minidoka and Cassia County officials has been to create a major travel route through the area.

In an interview, Watson acknowledged that proponents originally envisaged a paved highway. However, he said, "the committee has gradually realized that that’s probably unattainable." Allred agreed that a paved road is not the immediate goal, but said he could not rule it out in the long term.

Vic Watson, a detective with the Minidoka County Sheriff’s Office and a member of the Minidoka-Cassia Transportation Committee, said the idea was first proposed about 40 years ago. The current proposal is for a high-quality gravel road.

A group from Minidoka and Cassia counties, including elected officials, would like to create an easily traversed route from Minidoka north to Arco. Watson said that of the 69-mile route between Arco and Minidoka, about 16 miles at the south end and 12 miles at the north end are already in good shape. For the 41 miles in between, it is little more than a dirt track.

"Some sheepherder took off from Arco once and somebody followed him," Blaine County Road and Bridge superintendent Dale Shappee said about the route.

Most of the route is within Blaine County, though for 15 miles it runs through the national monument, which is managed jointly by the National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management. The Minidoka-Cassia Transportation Committee plans to ask Simpson to request a supplemental appropriation for the agencies’ budgets to fund the road project. Committee Chairman Dwinelle Allred said that with the expansion of the national monument over two years ago, the federal government has a responsibility to improve the roads there.

The committee has hired Keefer Associates engineers of Meridian to design the project. Though information was not available from the firm regarding a cost estimate, Shappee said it would probably be in the range of $200,000 to $300,000 per mile.

Allred, a former mayor of Rupert, said proponents would like to see the road improved to gain better access for emergency and fire suppression vehicles, to make it easier for cattle and sheep ranchers to haul materials to their allotments, and to provide easier access to the Crystal Ice Cave and King’s Bowl lava formations.

He also said an improved route would reduce the number of people who get lost in the area.

"People go out there and they don’t know the terrain," he said. "That’s a pretty hostile environment."

Watson said the Minidoka Sheriff’s Office conducts about six searches and a couple of medical assists each year in the area. He said erecting signs would be the biggest help, but acknowledged that increased use of the route could result in even more people becoming lost on side roads.

The Park Service and BLM expect to have a management plan for Craters of the Moon in place by fall 2004. Four proposed alternatives, still in rudimentary form, include a range of development, from maintaining the monument’s primitive character to building many more facilities for visitors. Improvement of the Minidoka-Arco road is part of the most development-intensive alternative.

 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.