A group of residents in northeastern Missoula County is pursuing the creation of a new county encompassing Potomac, Seeley Lake and Condon, which would be Montana’s first new county since 1925, the Missoulian reported.
The effort, organized under the banner “County 57,” is the latest attempt by rural residents in the Seeley Swan Valley to separate from a county government they say spends heavily while delivering few services in return. Ted Morgan, a former state legislative candidate and Swan Valley community councilor, told the Missoulian that residents want services closer to home and estimated a new county could cut property taxes by as much as half in some areas.
Morgan commissioned a 21-page feasibility report this month arguing that local property values and infrastructure could sustain a county comparable to Mineral or Granite counties. It proposes a lean government headquartered in Seeley Lake with about 20 full-time employees and a roughly $5 million annual budget, serving an estimated 4,000 to 4,500 year-round residents inside a boundary running from Johnsrud Park Road along Highway 200 to the Powell County line and north on Highway 83 to Lake County.
Chris Lounsbury, Missoula County’s chief administrative officer, told the Missoulian the underlying needs could be addressed without the cost and uncertainty of a new county, and warned that a smaller jurisdiction could end up providing fewer services.
The legal path is steep. Montana’s county-creation statutes have gone unused for more than a century and require approval from a majority of voters countywide, meaning Missoula’s urban core would decide whether the valley could leave. Dan Clark, director of the Local Government Center at Montana State University, told the Missoulian the century-old rules set specific thresholds that would be difficult for citizens to clear without outside help.
Chief among them is the requirement for an incorporated county seat, which would likely force a separate incorporation process for Seeley Lake. Morgan contends a “platted village” can qualify instead. Other requirements include 250 square miles of surveyed land excluding Forest Service and reservation holdings — a challenge in the heavily federal Seeley Swan, though possibly reachable by including land along the Blackfoot River — and assumption of a share of Missoula County’s more than $40 million in long-term debt.
Morgan and others have been working with state legislators on research toward rewriting the statutes. A County 57 page on Facebook has drawn more than 500 members, and Morgan said he is planning public events. The last new county in Montana was Petroleum County, which split from Fergus County in 1925.