Happy October, Flathead Valley! It’s that time of year again when Spirit Halloween reclaims its haunted headquarters in the shuttered Herberger’s, 12-foot-tall skeletons relocate from the shelves of Home Depot to the Flathead Valley’s suburbia and those pumpkin-shaped Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups become a temptation at every grocery store checkout.
Spooky season is here, but hopefully the Godzilla El Niño, which is responsible for the first hurricane-free September in the Atlantic in 30 years, didn’t deter you from buying a season pass to Whitefish Mountain Resort this winter. Sept. 30 was the last day to purchase passes at the discounted rate of $805, and prices today have gone up to $1,199 until Nov. 15 when they spike again to $1,570. Truly terrifying.
But before we rush to November, there is important business to attend to this month in Flathead County. On Tuesday, for example, the final plat for the controversial “Territory 1889” development slated to bring a luxury golf club to Lakeside returns to county commissioners after they tabled the item last week.
Construction company LHC, Inc., is proposing to add mobile asphalt, wash and concrete plants within the central portion of the gravel extraction area, with the crusher positioned in the southeast corner while stockpile areas will be situated along the south-central portion of the 160-acre lot. Other areas of the property would remain available for continued agriculture use. The layout would include circulation routes required for haul trucks, material transfer, equipment access and vehicle movement, according to the staff report.
The gravel pit would be accessed directly from Farm to Market Road, which has a 60-foot-wide right-of-way near the property along with an existing transportation network that provides adequate access.
The applicant intends to construct an 8-foot-tall landscaped berm to provide noise buffering for the neighboring residents while extraction would occur below the existing grade. Hours of operation would be scheduled Monday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. while blasting operations will be restricted to Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Farm to Market Road is currently utilized by an existing gravel pit (pictured above) located to the south of the proposed property, which generates haul-truck traffic along the corridor. The existing use demonstrates that the roadway is already able to accommodate heavy-vehicle trips associated with extractive uses, according to the staff report.
According to the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), there are currently 80 opencut mining sites in Flathead County with a handful located in West Valley and a high concentration off U.S. Highway 2 near Glacier Park International Airport. The sites are primarily owned by civil construction companies while a few are owned by Flathead County. Statewide, there are 1,576 sites.
Opencut minerals include bentonite, clay, scoria, soil materials, peat, sand or gravel, according to Montana DEQ.
The Flathead County Board of Adjustment will vote on the proposed conditional use permit at a public hearing on Oct. 6 at 6 p.m. in the Second Floor Conference Room of the South Campus Building located at 40 11th Street West in Kalispell.
I’m Maggie Dresser and here’s the rest of the Daily Roundup.
FVCC Board Delays Approval of New President’s Contract for Attorney Review
Trustees want an employment attorney to review Deborah Kish Stephan's contract. Campus employees used public comment to raise concerns about transparency in the search and in campus compensation.
2026 Great Northwest Oktoberfest Kicks Off with Locals Night
The action begins at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 1 with Locals Night, where Flathead residents age 21 and over will get into the festivities at Depot Park in downtown Whitefish for free.
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