Beaver Creek receives donation for lodge renovation

Northwest Farm Credit Services presented a $4,800 check to the Hill County Park Board at their monthly meeting Monday night, a donation toward ongoing repairs and renovations being made to the Beaver Creek Park Beaver Lodge at Camp Kiwanis.

Courtney Helmers and Heidi Borlaug of NWFCS presented the check, which the former said is part of their organization's annual efforts to assist community projects in the area.

"Every year, employees are given a certain amount of money and we look for projects in the community that we find value in and mean something to us," Helmers said.

She said employees also typically offer direct physical assistance to projects like this, but given the weather that will likely not be possible for a while.

Board members and Beaver Creek Park Superintendent Chad Edgar thanked the two for their company's generosity.

Edgar said plans for the lodge project are being drafted but are not finalized, and the plans will be necessary for the grant they are applying for to cover as much of the project's costs as possible.

He said they need letters of support to get this grant and they sent requests for such letters to the 4-H Extension agents in the surrounding counties.

However, he said, they are looking for letters from anyone in the community who is willing to write one about what the lodge means to them, and how they've made use of it over the years.

During the meeting Edgar also provided an update on park usage, which he said is understandably low given the time of year.

He also said there are still 1,415 head of cattle on the park and no cattle-related accidents have occurred since the last park board meeting.

He said grass in the north end and Kiwanis pastures are holding up, but sections of them have been depleted.

Havre resident Lou Hagener provided a report on monitoring progress on the park and said recovery has been low this year, and based on predictions from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that seems likely that recovery will be low next year as well, as the region is predicted to have hot dry weather starting in April.

During the public comments section, Hagener also said he thinks the board's finance and planning committee should resume their efforts to establish a long-term plan for Beaver Creek Park.

He said that when the committee was formed it was established with one of their goals being the creation of such a plan, and while many on the committee members have worked toward that goal, it since seems to have been put on the back burner, which he would like to see change.