BILLINGS— A Billings City Council member is working with the Southside Task Force to gather support for cleanup at an underpass area.
According to City Council member Mike Boyett, the Montana Department of Transportation spent several million dollars renovating the underpass at Sixth Street West near State Avenue, but left a waste-filled retention pond behind.
Related: Underpass construction in Billings expected to last through summer
“I recently attended a Southside Task Force meeting where the Montana Department of Transportation talked about this and basically said they were done. They had no more money to fix it,” said Boyett, who is running for mayor.
Boyett said the pond being so close to the walkway by the underpass is hazardous, and that it has been attracting attention from children.
“I'm hearing from constituents in this ward, not my ward, but this ward, that they're tired of this. They want it fixed. They don't want their kids down here. And as you can see, it is a mess,” he said.
Boyett hopes to bring attention to the problem to prompt the state to make a change.
“I've driven around the city a lot. I've gone to new subdivisions where there's water retention ponds. None of them look like this. There's no excuse for this. We want the state to fix it,” he said.
Boyett is working with Southside Task Force Vice Chairperson Jim Ronquillo, who said bird feces at the underpass walkway has also been a problem.
“We can show you what the pigeon crap does to a concrete underpass. It's deteriorating the concrete. So eventually, you're going to have to be looking at another $20 or $30 million to get that bridge replaced,” said Ronquillo, a former Billings City Council member.
He hopes the state will help remove the birds and remove the waste from the path so pedestrians can have a cleaner walkway.
“We're just trying to clean our South Side up and to make it stable for the people that want to come and live down here,” he said.
Ronquillo is encouraging community members to speak up about the issue at the next Southside Task Force meeting, which will be on Oct. 16 at 6 p.m. at Walla Walla University at 2520 Fifth Ave. S.
Boyett is encouraging the public to comment on the issue at City Council meetings and to petition Gov. Greg Gianforte.
