Rotary job shores up vintage wall
The Kalispell Noon Rotary Club has a built a firm foundation in the Flathead for community service. Club members also have been working from the ground up to help restore the landscaping at the Conrad Mansion.
As Rotary celebrates its 100th year, its clubs across the country have been challenged to celebrate the centennial with lasting projects that will forever enhance their communities and leave a permanent legacy.
Taking that task to heart, the Noon Club formed a special Centennial Project Committee and began to explore project ideas that would put a lasting mark on Kalispell. The club learned of the Conrad Mansion Board's plan to rejuvenate the gardens, a multi-tiered, multi-year project. Rotary president Jim Johnson was influential in presenting the proposal of rebuilding the rock wall that surrounds the grounds of the historic mansion.
The original wall was built within the first year that the home was built almost 110 years ago, says mansion board member and Noon Club member Rita Fitzsimmons. Italian tradesman were imported and hired to dry stack the original native Montana rock around the mansion's perimeter. Its rugged design was intended to mimic the jagged mountain ranges in the distance.
Although the wall withstood weather and time for well over a century, it eventually began collapsing and portions fell into disrepair.
"The Conrad Mansion's board was knocked out by the participation and involvement the Centennial Committee took in the process," says Fitzsimmons. The committee examined project bids, met regularly with the landscape team and inspected the work while it was in progress. Fitzsimmons credits committee chairman Bill Hendrix and Muffie Thomson, who were instrumental in spearheading the project and seeing it through its completion.
A-1 Landscaping Inc. laid the rock under the direction of owner Andy Klein. "It was a challenge," Klein says. "There were spots where we needed to dig down and had to use a torch to thaw out the soil." The two-man crew used solely the original rock and took pains to not only preserve the wall's rugged European design but also the lichen that had formed on its face over the years. The design required wielding large flat-laid slabs on the bottom that was then capped with a nearly vertical top row. The project took two and a half weeks.
Now a new and handsome wall graces the grounds of the Conrad Mansion and will, it is hoped, last another 100 years.
Fitzsimmons thanks the Kalispell Noon Rotary Club for its dedication to and funding of the project, and the A-1 team for its professionalism and talented work.
Sue Lawrence of West Glacier commends Crazy4Critters, a youth group affiliated with the Humane Society of Northwest Montana. The group does its part to assist in finding animals new homes through the society's Charlotte Edkins Animal Adoption Center and promotes animal awareness issues in the valley.
Recently, the children were involved in making and delivering 20 gift baskets for families in need that also are caring for their pets.
"I would also like to thank the parents that have supported their children in their involvement in community volunteer efforts," Lawrence writes. "Each and every one of you have made a difference."