Turner lodge under construction

By Paul Boring

Special to the Inter Lake

LIBBY - With the help of countless volunteers, the new lodge at Turner Mountain is inching closer to completion every day.

"The exterior walls are framed and trusses will come in this week," said Bruce Zwang, Kootenai Winter Sports president. "Once they arrive and are set, the roof will go on.

"The project's moving forward at a very quick pace. We're excited and happy to be in the building phase," Zwang added. "We're starting to see progress on a daily basis."

Project Manager Lonnie Hansen has been running a tight ship, Zwang said, helping the project move along smoothly.

"Lonnie has put tons of hours into the project, as have a number of individuals. Something's happening every day up there."

The immediate goal is to complete the roof before inclement weather hits Lincoln County.

"We had hoped to be at this point earlier in the season, but we're making steady progress and we want to get the roof on as quick as possible, so we're out of the weather,"

Zwang said. "The pressure will be off once the roof is on. Then it will be weathered in. And then we're not dependent on the weather."

The work crew shuffling the schedule at Turner has been successful at working around the delays implicit in constructing a facility like the new lodge.

"The schedule's changing as we're moving because of one thing slowing another thing down," Zwang said. "We're constantly moving it around. And there was a tremendous amount of work completed this summer and last summer to enable us to this. That's why we're able to see this phenomenal progress."

In addition to the lodge construction, the parking lot at Turner is being resurfaced through funding provided by the Lincoln County Resource Advisory Committee.

"That's really looking great, too," Zwang said. "Everything's coming together."

Volunteers have literally kept Turner running over the years. The current project at the co-op ski hill is no exception.

"We got the funding two weeks ago and boom, we've almost got a roof on it," Zwang said. "This is a volunteer project. We're saving an incredible amount of money by using volunteers. That's the beauty of Turner Mountain. It always has been."