County at odds with lodge owners

Flathead County Health Department officials have ordered a lodge near West Glacier to close after the company failed to obtain proper permits.

Glacier Guides Lodge began operation this summer after years of planning and nearly $1 million in expenses, according to owners. It remains open on Highline Boulevard just east of Glacier National Park’s entrance despite a terse letter from Flathead County’s environmental services division.

The Aug. 2 letter was issued after a recent visit to the lodge revealed apparent discrepancies in permitting. In it, the company is asked to remove signs, remove the lodge from its website and cease operations.

Health department Director Joe Russell said sewage treatment permits were granted for a tourist home limited to 12 rooms and 24 occupants.

While the number of rooms is in line, Russell said the facility has the capacity to serve additional visitors and should have been permitted as a motel. Additionally, the lodge has no food or public accommodation licenses, according to the health department.

If it fails to comply with the health department order, Russell said legal routes will be pursued, specifically the involvement of the Flathead County Attorney’s Office.

“The time to comply was immediately,” Russell said. “They need to stop. We have asked them. We have literally said ‘you cannot operate.’”

The owners of the lodge say they are caught in the middle of a bureaucratic misunderstanding and that they are attempting to comply with differing definitions and requirements of the health department and the county planning and zoning office.

Denny Gignoux, one of three owners, said the facility has followed the occupancy requirements and that he was caught off guard by the county’s demands.

“We thought we were doing everything right,” Gignoux said. “We’ve been in business since 1983. We have no interest in circumventing the system.”

Gignoux and fellow owner Randy Gayner said they are trying to change the permitting designation from tourist home to bed and breakfast, a move they hope will alleviate the county’s concerns. Some rooms in the facility have more than one queen-sized bed, opening the possibility of a higher number of nightly occupants.

If the county wants them to remove beds, Gignoux said they would do it.

“We found out our issues and the problem and we immediately took the steps to correct that,” Gignoux said.

Russell disagrees. He said the owners have failed to reply to the county’s letter. He didn’t speculate on whether the apparent permitting problem was intentional or incidental to operating a small business. He said an improperly designed septic system, combined with a higher-than-expected occupancy, could overload the system and create a health hazard.

Depending on the number of people at the lodge, Russell said the system could exceed wastewater limits by 200 percent.

Gayner said the company spent $50,000 on a commercial tank that more than meets its needs. He provided a letter of approval from the Montana Department of Environmental Quality and said the issue ultimately comes down to miscommunication at the county level.

“It’s like the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing and we’re caught in the middle,” Gayner said,

But the owners may have aided any miscommunication. In the planning department, they applied as a bed and breakfast while they told the health department they planned to operate a tourist home. The difference is a broad array of governmental requirements.

Both owners say they suspect the move to close the facility is being pushed by a nearby competitor that was forced to undergo broad, expensive development review upon starting an expansion.

Gignoux said his company plans to evaluate its options. Closing the facility isn’t one of them at this point, he said, adding that reservations have been made and people would be displaced.

“We would really like to get this all resolved before it comes down to closing the facility,” Gignoux said.

Reporter Eric Schwartz may be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at eschwartz@dailyinterlake.com.