You can't get there from here

More roads to school unlikely to be built soon

The lonely green "Wolfpack Way" sign is posted just off Reserve Loop Drive, no more than a stone's throw from Glacier High School's east parking lot.

It is a marker to nowhere, however, because a road to go with the sign hasn't been built and there is no eastern approach to the Kalispell high school. And that is a testament to an economic downturn that has made it highly unlikely that the east end of Wolfpack Way will be built in the near future.

"We've already bought the right of way. It's just a matter of somebody coming up with the money to fund it," said Chuck Cassidy, director of facilities and transportation for Kalispell Public Schools.

Design plans have been completed for an eastern approach to the school that would provide for four access points into the parking lots on the school's south and east sides. The access roads, however, were intended to be built by commercial developers leasing adjacent school trust land from the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation.

And because of the economy, the once-roaring development on the north side of Kalispell has dried up.

"We expected that Wolfpack Way would be constructed by a developer," said Steve Lorch, community planner for the DNRC regional land office in Kalispell. "Obviously, right now things have slowed down a good bit in terms of the economy. And that makes it a little harder to predict when that development will occur."

For now, people approaching the school on Reserve Loop Drive go all the way around the campus before reaching a parking lot. From the eastern Wolfpack Way sign, they drive well past the school to a roundabout, then onto Stillwater Road to reach the south parking lot from the western end of Wolfpack Way - a distance of one mile.

It's also a mile from the Wolfpack Way sign to the roundabout and back to the east on Reserve Loop to reach the school's north parking lot.

All of the school's vehicle traffic is funneled into those two entrances, with congestion peaking before and after school and special events.

The situation generated some confusion and complaints during the last school year, the school's first in operation, said Cassidy.

He noted that Glacier High School is a closed campus that allows only seniors to come and go during the day. The limited road access actually makes it easier to monitor underclassmen leaving the campus, he said.

While more people are accustomed to the traffic situation, there is a glaring need for eventually having an eastern approach to provide better access to the school's largest parking area.

The designs arranged by the school district, the DNRC and the city of Kalispell would provide that access.

The plan calls for a through route tentatively called Timberwolf Parkway that would extend from Reserve Loop Drive to Stillwater Road. Wolfpack Way would join Timberwolf Parkway, and combined, they would provide four driveway approaches into the high school's south and east parking areas.

Timberwolf Parkway would serve as the frontage road for future commercial developments south of the high school, while Wolfpack Way would be the primary exclusive route for reaching the high school.

Traffic control on Reserve Loop is an issue that could be costly, Lorch said.

"If it requires a stoplight, that's a big-ticket item," he said, adding that a new road off Reserve Loop will have to meet city standards.

Lorch said there is potential for the school district to develop just a few hundred feet of a road to access the high school off Reserve Loop Drive. And the DNRC has agreed to require future developers to reimburse the school district for the initial costs of building the road.

Cassidy said the Kalispell School Board's facility and transportation committee came up with cost estimates last year, finding that construction of a few hundred feet of road for an eastern approach would be cost from $100,000 to $400,000.

And its priority will be measured every year prior to the summer construction season, he said. Possible funding sources include grants, the school district's building reserve fund, and, less likely, raising money through a bond issue.

"It will come up every year in the discussion for summer projects … to see where it racks and stacks with other projects," Cassidy said.

Glacier High School has progressed on other improvements with a limited budget. Cassidy noted that the high school has 40 acres of activity fields that are, with the exception of two softball fields, mostly completed.

"It would be nice to have it all the first year, but that's not how it works," he said.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com