Page 13 - Flathead Beacon // 5.20.2015

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County Receives Bids for Blacktail Road Paving Project
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Four bids came in under anticipated cost, paving could begin by late June
By MOLLY PRIDDY of the Beacon
Flathead County received bids on May 12 from construction companies vy- ing for the job of the first phase of paving portions of Blacktail Road in Lakeside.
The county, in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service, will start paving the popular road, which runs from Lakeside up to Blacktail Mountain Ski Area. The 14-mile road has some asphalt, but the county and Forest Service are working on paving more of the gravel sections to improve the roadway.
On March 12, the Flathead Coun- ty Commission opened the bids from companies competing for the contract to pave the first section of the road, spanning 1.96 miles from the end of the current asphalt.
Knife River bid $492,366.25; HK Contractors, Inc. bid $698,798; AGC, Inc. bid $747,571; and LHC, Inc. bid $477,995.
The bids came in well under the esti- mated construction costs, Dave Prunty,
the county road director, said. Origi- nally, when applying for a grant through the Federal Land Access Program in conjunction with the Forest Service, they expected the first phase to cost about $1.2 million.
The Forest Service was awarded the FLAP grant, with Flathead County slat- ed to pay the 14 percent match. Though there are considerable costs to add, such as engineering, the project will likely cost less anticipated.
“It’s less than the estimate that we put in to the application,” Prunty said. “That’s the nice part about put- ting out a bid.”
The second phase of the project will cover nearly the same amount of road as the first, but will cost significantly more, at about $5 million. There is another grant for the cost of that section.
Phase 2 will cost more due to the geologic and hydrologic issues engineers and construction crews will encoun- ter on the second section, Prunty said. The mountain slumps into the road, and there are water issues.
“There is going to have to be sig- nificant engineering and construc- tion when the road goes through that stretch,” Prunty said.
Construction on this first phase of the paving project, however, is much more straightforward, he said, with crews adding drainage improvements and paving the gravel road.
Prunty said if the weather holds, crews could start their work as early as late June, but he said construction is more likely to begin after the Fourth of July holiday weekend.
Blacktail Road runs through county, federal easement, and Forest Service ju- risdiction on its way from Lakeside to the ski resort, and Prunty said it would be up to the Forest Service to determine how far the pavement goes once the second phase of the project is complet- ed, since the second phase ends at the forest boundary.
As a roadway, Blacktail Road allows access not only to the ski area amd other recreational pursuits.
Gary Dancyzk, a staff officer with the Flathead National Forest, said the For- est Service would perform an environ- mental analysis on paving the road fur- ther than the first two phases, though he said there is potentially enough fund- ing in place to pave slightly beyond the forest boundary.
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Missoula Administrator Selected as Whitefish Schools Superintendent
School board unanimously approves Heather Davis Schmidt as next superintendent of Whitefish public schools
By DILLON TABISH of the Beacon
Heather Davis Schmidt, a former teacher and current administrator in Missoula, has been named the new su- perintendent of the Whitefish School District.
The district’s board of trustees voted unanimously on May 13 to hire Davis Schmidt to replace Kate Orozco, who announced in March her plans to resign after four years. Contract negotiations are underway and Davis Schmidt is ex- pected to start July 1.
Davis Schmidt emerged as the top candidate among four finalists vying for the top administrator position.
“She’s very knowledgeable in 21st- century type educational advance-
ments. She has been at the helm for sev- eral innovative learning projects in Mis- soula,” said board member Ruth Harri- son. “And she had already looked at our strategic plan and it lines up with hers. She’s just a great fit.”
Davis Schmidt has worked in Mis- soula County Public Schools since 2002. She served as a teacher, coach and ad- visor at Seeley-Swan High School from 2002-07. From 2008-10, she was dean of students at Missoula Big Sky. From 2010-11, she served as director of cur- riculum and Title I for the district. Since 2011, she has served as executive region- al director.
Among the accomplishments refer- enced during her interview, implement- ing a five-year strategic plan and 21st century model of education for Missou- la’s K-12 classes stood out for trustees as valuable for Whitefish’s future, Har- rison said.
Davis Schmidt also helped establish a new International Baccalaureate Pro- gram in the Missoula district.
In 2012, she was named the Montana School Administrator of the Year.
“Whitefish is an amazing communi-
ty, specifically related to its schools,” she said. “I really took a close look at what the district stood for. I’ve been really im- pressed by the progressive nature of the board of trustees and the staff up there. I wanted to work in a community that supports its young people, and White- fish certainly does.”
Davis Schmidt said one of her top goals is to maintain the strong communi- ty engagement with the schools. She also wants to continue finding ways to engage students through innovative programs.
She enters a school district that has undergone significant changes in recent years.
Under Orozco, the Whitefish district successfully completed a massive reno- vation of Whitefish High School and overhauled the school’s curriculum to focus on innovative learning models.
The Whitefish school board also in- terviewed finalists Lance Pearson, the superintendent of Victor Public Schools, Josh Middleton, former assistant super- intendent in Billings, and Rick Duncan, the superintendent of Powell County High School District.
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