Pre-release site area narrowed

The local committee trying to find a site for the proposed pre-release center in the Kalispell area is narrowing its area of focus.

The panel, which met Thursday, is looking into potential locations between Montana 40 and Pioneer Road, within a quarter mile of U.S. 2.

“We invite the county planning director to talk about any planned development and help further refine the area,” Bonnie Olson, the pre-release committee chair, said.

“I think you’ll find a lot of people who don’t support it,” said Pam Holmquist, who lives in Evergreen. She was one of a handful of Evergreen residents who attended the meeting to offer their thoughts.

Linda Johnson, who lives on Birch Grove Road, said she feared her property’s value would plummet. Russel Johnson, who lives south of the proposed area, feared an influx of new workers competing in an already scarce job market would be a “nail in the coffin” for out-of-work Kalispell residents.

However, the working committee, appointed jointly by the city and county in January 2008, strongly supports a Kalispell-area pre-release center.

The proposed pre-release center would be a 40-bed facility. The state requires pre-release centers to be within a 15-minute response time from law enforcement and have access to 24-hour fire and medical services. The committee implemented further restrictions barring the pre-release center from residentially zoned areas and from areas within 1,500 feet of a school.

The originally proposed site in the old Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services building at 2282 U.S. 93 South was in its final stage when a survey of local residents found that 74 percent opposed the location, forcing a search for a new site.

Community, Counseling and Correctional Services — a Butte-based nonprofit that operates 12 detention or treatment facilities in three states — won the contract to operate the Kalispell pre-release center last December.

Bonnie Olson, who presided over the meeting, will give the public notice and call a meeting to let people comment on the proposed location before it goes to a bidder.