Page 10 - Flathead Beacon // 9.7.16

NEWS
A Fork to Reckon With
Ten-foot-tall fork erected in downtown Bigfork could become community ‘icon’
BY CLARE MENZEL OF THE BEACON
For years, Michael Michlig has looked out onto Twin Birch Square courtyard from the windows of the Bigfork Artisans Gallery and thought that “a big fork sticking up in the air” would transform the unadorned space into “a town center, a place to meet.”
“It’s a no-brainer, really,” he said.
On Aug. 29, Michlig’s vision came to life when he,
Micro-Mart owner Rodney Ernhart, and artist Dan Vigil erected a nearly 10-foot-tall steel fork in the downtown courtyard. The fork’s symbolism is multi-pronged—while it plays on the town’s name, it also represents the strong restaurant scene and local arts community.
“Bigfork is an art town, and this is public art, so it’s per- fect,” Michlig said. “We’ve got folks taking family pictures in front of it and just cracking up... Everybody is getting a big kick out of it. Visitors are just going wild; locals are
coming out to see it.”
Michlig predicts the fork is “going to be very iconic for
the town of Bigfork,” much like the St. Louis Gateway Arch or the Paul Bunyan statue in Bemidji, Minnesota.
To create the structure, Vigil, an artist who special- izes in ornamental metal work, scaled up the dimensions of a kitchen fork and used a plasma cutter to create the detailed shape. The process, which he described as simple and straightforward, took about a week. Made entirely of steel, the fork also has a powder coat. Twin Birch Square, a business association of the surrounding units, commis- sioned the piece for just over $1,000.
Michlig says the response has been positive.
“Sure enough, there’s a couple of grouches saying it’s cheesy, but it’s beautifully done,” he said. “It’s sculpted, it has scalloped edges. It has a beautiful contour. It’s really just a salute to a neat town like Bigfork.”
clare@ atheadbeacon.com
A sculpture of a large fork in downtown Bigfork. GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON
Evergreen School District Pushes for More Technology in Classrooms Junior high shows o 3D printers, devices during Gov. Steve Bullock’s visit
BY JUSTIN FRANZ OF THE BEACON
Gov. Steve Bullock visited Evergreen Junior High School on Sept. 1 as part of a weeklong back-to-school tour. The Dem- ocrat touted the importance of putting computers and other high-tech devices in the hands of students.
Chromebooks and iPads have become a critical part of the curriculum at the Evergreen School District, which requires every eighth-grade student to take a tech- nology class. With the help of federal grants, the school district has spent thou- sands of dollars to put top-of-the-line devices in every classroom, and Super- intendent Laurie Barron said by the end of the year they plan on having enough
Chromebooks for every junior high student.
“This technology is an incredible resource that we need to prepare all of our students for an increasingly digital world,” she said.
Barron said teachers try to incorporate the computers into everyday classes, but notes that they are not a lesson replace- ment and are used at the teacher’s discre- tion. Barron said o cials have found that iPads are especially useful for younger stu- dents, while the older kids have embraced the Chromebooks.
For this fall, the school also purchased two 3D printers that will be incorporated into its technology class. During the tour, Bullock was given a school medallion that
was made on the printer. The governor marveled at what the kids knew and how computer technology has advanced since he was in school. During the tour, Bull- ock told teachers that when he left Helena High School in 1984 he got a typewriter as a graduation gift from his parents.
“I don’t even feel that old, but it’s amaz- ing to see how much the technology has changed since then,” he said. “This tech- nology here will help open up a whole new world of opportunity for these students.”
Barron said most of the school’s tech- nology improvements have been funded through grants from the federal govern- ment. During his visit, Bullock said he hopes to push a bill in the next Legisla- ture that would put $1 million toward
matching those federal technology grants. Bullock noted that having a technology lit- erate workforce will be more important in the years and decades to come.
Bullock’s visit to Evergreen comes as the gubernatorial race is heating up. The governor’s Republican challenger, Greg Gianforte, has also talked about the importance of getting technology in the classroom and is pushing a plan to require computer education in every high school in the state. Bullock criticized the Republi- can’s tax proposals, however, and said they would result in steep cuts at schools across the state, undermining e orts to put more technology at students’ ngertips.
jfranz@ atheadbeacon.com
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SEPTEMBER 7, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM