Eastern access to Glacier High opens

People traveling to Glacier High School no longer have to drive all the way around the school to reach the parking lot.

The school’s east access, essentially a driveway off Reserve Loop, is to open today. School will be out of session for the Thanksgiving holiday, so Kalispell Public Schools will host an official grand opening on Monday.

The opening ceremony begins at 1 p.m.; representatives from the district, Flathead Valley Community College, the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, the city of Kalispell, LHC Inc. and Schellinger Construction will take part in the event.

Those groups represent the collaboration that took place to complete the project, according to a press release from the school district.

The Department of Natural Resources and Conservation contributed $22,500 to the driveway, which, combined with $46,000 the district earmarked for the project, was enough to build the access.

The community college’s heavy equipment class did much of the site preparation work, including moving dirt, for only the cost of the fuel.

Bruce Tutvedt, Al Schellinger of Schellinger Construction and Jeff Claridge of LHC donated a significant amount of the material that established the driveway’s base.

The access still hasn’t been striped, but the district opted to wait for more cooperative weather to finish the project.

Eventually the driveway will have to be torn out and reconfigured. As part of the development in the area, the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation has to reconfigure how Wolfpack Way and Timberwolf Parkway access one another.

When that happens, Wolfpack will be realigned to flow into Timberwolf, which will intersect with Reserve Loop. But that likely won’t take place until the economy improves and development begins in that area.

When that happens, the school district will be responsible for paying for the 175-foot right-of-way it purchased from the state when Glacier High was under construction.