Commissioners leave intersection alone for now

Lincoln County commissioners decided not to create a three-way stop at the Snowshoe-Shaugnessy-Cabinet Heights intersection against the wishes of nearly 150 people who signed a petition last month requesting a stop sign be put back up on Cabinet Heights Road.

“We stayed with what was there,” commissioner John Konzen said, “but we didn’t close the door to the fact that some changes could happen in the future.”

Residents of the area disapproved of the intersection being reshaped and a stop sign being moved last summer. Marc McCully, county road crew foreman for Libby district, said the county made the changes under orders from the state because accident numbers were high.

Shaugnessy Road forks at the top of the hill – Snowshoe Road on the left, Cabinet Heights Road in the middle and Scenery Road on the right. The county turned the curve from Shaugnessy to Snowshoe into more of a left turn. A stop sign was relocated from Cabinet Heights to Snowshoe, creating a through street between Shaugnessy and Cabinet Heights.

Residents argue that it is unsafe in the winter for uphill traffic turning left onto Snowshoe to yield to downhill traffic traveling from Cabinet Heights to Shaugnessy. They would like the stop sign to be replaced to create a three-way stop, allowing uphill traffic the right-of-way.

The stop sign would unlikely be put up this winter.

“If it happens,” McCully said, “it’ll probably happen in spring time, but it will be a commissioner decision.”

From mid-July to mid-November, vandals defiantly mowed down the new stop sign on Snowshoe Road 13 times. The sign – which costs about $100 to replace, not including labor – has been untouched for nearly six weeks.

“We moved it a little closer to the bank so it’s harder to get to now with a vehicle,” McCully said.