Beaver Creek Lodge repair project denied grant

At a monthly meeting of the Hill County Park Board Monday, Beaver Creek Park Superintendent Chad Edgar said the project to work on the lodge at Beaver Creek Park’s Camp Kiwanis was not awarded a grant that would have covered a substantial amount of the hundreds-of-thousands-of-dollars project, and this has created some uncertainty in the potential budget for the park in the coming year.

Between recent damage to the roof and ongoing wall shifting, the lodge has been in need of updates and repairs for some time and the project to do that will cost will into six digits.

While Friends of Beaver Creek Park is working to raise funds throughout the year to pay for as much of the project as possible, being denied this grant is a significant setback and one that will affect the park’s upcoming budgets.

Edgar said the board’s Finance and Planning Committee will meet soon to discuss the upcoming budget and he will attend that meeting to discuss budget requests and the ongoing needs in the park, including outhouses, an entry kiosk, gravel for the roads and inventory items.

However, he said, the lodge will be the the primary point of discussion at the meeting.

He said local architect Becki Miller is still working on the plans for the lodge improvement program despite the unfortunate news regarding the grant.

Hill County Commissioner Mark Peterson, a member of the park board, said the park and board are continuing to look for grant opportunities, but money may be difficult to find for this project.

As for ongoing efforts to fund the project, board member Ursula Brese, who is also a representative of Friends of Beaver Creek Park, said she recently encountered someone who was claiming to be affiliated with their organization selling tickets to the Save the Lodge raffle, which is raising money for the lodge project.

She said this person is not affiliated with their organization and the tickets may not be legitimate, so people should be cautious when buying tickets, which she said are green and are sold at businesses around the community and by Friends of Beaver Creek Park Board Members. She said Friends of Beaver Creek Park will post on its Facebook page a list of the businesses selling the tickets.

The uncertainty over the lodge project’s funding is one of the reasons board members have expressed hesitance over running a range inventory of the park, one that could potentially provide more data on how much vegetation the park produces and be used to provide more precise recommendations about how many cattle should be grazing the park in any given year.

The board’s newest member, Lou Hagener, who was recently appointed to fill the seat left by Nick Siebrasse when he resigned earlier this year, said the methods that would be used in this inventory will provide accurate data even if done in an abnormally dry year, as it would examine composition information instead of weighing vegetation directly.

Hagener said the method is not perfect, but it would provide useful data, though he warned members that the recommended stocking rates would likely be lower than what they are currently doing.

However, he said, given the uncertainty regarding this year’s budget as well as the work Edgar is already doing to refine the park’s numbers on actual usage he recommends holding off on doing this inventory another year.

Board member Tony Reum said he likes the idea of the inventory but agreed that the price tag of $9,500 was a big concern, one shared by Brese as well.

The board’s new vice-chair, Larry Kinsella, was more critical of the potential inventory, saying he doesn’t see any benefit to it whatsoever.

Board member and Hill County Commissioner Diane McLean said the inventory was a suggestion by Grazing Committee Member Leon LaSalle, and it may be good to have him meet with the board and explain why he supports the inventory and its potential benefits.

The board decided to make a final decision on the matter at the next board meeting so they all have some time to consider it.

The board also tabled a voting on a draft application for new grazers on the park, which has had revisions made to it since the last meeting.

Hagener said the draft presented at the last meeting received little in the way of suggestion or comment from board members.

He said the new version cleaned up some of the language and generally simplified the form to the point that it could fit on one page, asking for information like the makeup of an applicant’s heard, their preference when it comes to pastures and contact information.

He said the applications would be public, so contact information would need to be redacted before the they are made available.

He said the application would also ask for county of residence, as people in Hill County are given priority, and requests that applicants review all the grazing policies so they understand what they’re getting into.

Hagener also said people using the application should make sure to keep a copy and the park will make sure to document when applications are received so they can keep accurate records.

He said he can start working on an application form for transfers as well if the board wants him to.

While Hagener said he wanted to make a motion to adopt the new application, Kinsella, who ran the meeting due to the absence of its new Chair Jeff Jensen, said he wasn’t comfortable voting on it now, so the board tabled approval until the next meeting to give members a chance to look at the new form.

During the meeting the board also provided their blessings to the Second Annual Bear Paw Marathon, set for June 4 in the park.

Havre Area Chamber of Commerce Director Jessica Fagerbakke said the marathon would require the southbound lane through the park to be partially closed off, with cars being shuttled through the other lane for the duration.

Fagerbakke said the marathon is scheduled to end by 10 a.m., but the runners will probably be done around 9 a.m.

She said last year’s marathon attracted 309 people and they’re hoping for more this year, and while they’re not there yet, she suspects the next month will have a lot more people signing up.

Peterson said he thinks the event should be approved but suggested the organizers have trash bags available for some runners who may be interested in picking up trash while they run, like one runner did last year.

The board approved the event but McLean asked that next year the Chamber come to the board with specifics about the event earlier in the process.

Fagerbakke, who was appointed at the end of March, said there was a two-month gap between directors, which complicated things, but they would come earlier next year.

The board also discussed putting up new Adopt-a-Highway signs and decided to see if the Montana Department of Transportation would be willing to help out on the sections of the road that are considered state highway before making any kind of decision.

Edgar said the signs are expensive enough that they would probably need to break the cost up over multiple budget years, otherwise.

He also provided an update on park usage, saying campers have been out in the park almost every single weekend, which he said is great, and conditions have improved slightly, but they are still hoping for more moisture.

Hagener also said the Hill County Conservation District has recently expressed an interest in the water quality monitoring work Montana State University-Northern Professor Terri Hildebrand has been doing at the park, so she may be getting some assistance from them in the future.