College at last begins building work

Flathead Valley Community College supporters breathed a sigh of relief last Friday, and who can blame them?

The college broke ground on an expansion project nearly three years after it was approved by voters in a mail-in election. The delay had been caused by lawsuits by people who said they didn't like the way the election was administered.

Well that issue is behind us now, and it is time for the community college to get back on track serving the needs of a growing community. If a bigger college campus, with more classrooms and more training programs, was needed three years ago, it is needed even more now.

The college has proven to be an important partner to the business community for the past 10 years. Indeed, Hank Ricklefs of Plum Creek said at the groundbreaking that "No other institution has been as responsive to the needs of the business community as Flathead Valley Community College."

That is high praise, indeed, and just as importantly the college has been responsive to the needs of its students, who soon will be the main beneficiaries of its long-overdue improvements.

Management of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex has taken a long and steady turn for the last 20 years, and all for the better.

Consider that between 1934 and the early 1980s, only about 3,000 acres burned inside the 1.5 million-acre complex. That limited acreage was the result of aggressive firefighting policies aimed at protecting forest resources.

It took decades, but finally there was recognition in the U.S. Forest Service that fire exclusion did nothing to help wilderness ecosystems that have been maintained for centuries by fire.

Slowly and carefully, a more liberal approach to fire has been adopted in the wilderness, where logging and other forms of management are banned. As a result, some 340,000 acres have burned since 1981.

Rising from the ashes are new and rejuvenated forests.

An improved Lone Pine Visitor Center, ready for year-round use?

Sounds great. But for $1.3 million?

For certain, it's good to see a well-used facility like Lone Pine as a funding priority, rather than having limited state park resources go somewhere else. Improvements at Lone Pine, currently heavily used just six months a year, are arguably needed.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is proposing a "renovation" of the visitor center just outside of Kalispell, including a 1,000-square-foot addition, a new roof, handicapped-accessible restrooms, better parking, a new outdoor amphitheater and a new heating system to make it available for year-round use, all for a mere $877,000.

The project also involves new interpretive displays that are estimated to cost an eye-popping $419,000.

What educational displays could possibly cost that much? Most folks could build a nice home for just that amount. Applying real estate terms to $1.3 million, the state could bulldoze the visitor center and replace it with a mighty fine home, complete with plenty of fancy features.

The state's costs are estimated and contract bidding has yet to occur. So it's not too late to consider ways to curb costs.

Fish, Wildlife and Parks needs to deliver more on this project - more fiscal scrutiny.