Revamped Blue Building to get a new name

Unless the county commissioners can come up with a jazzier name over the next couple of days, the new name for the former Blue Building will be Flathead County Courthouse West.

The Blue Building, which houses the county Treasurer’s Office, Superintendent of Schools Office and the motor-vehicle department, is undergoing a $784,000 remodeling that includes covering the building’s infamous blue metal paneling with a tan stucco-like exterior.

The rather mundane name — Courthouse West — was the top choice from a building committee that mulled ideas for a fitting title.

Among the top five choices were Old Blue, 935 West, First Avenue West and the T building (the T would stand for teachers, tags, treasurer and taxes).

When commissioners Jim Dupont and Joe Brenneman suggested the top pick was kind of average, maybe even boring, Treasurer Adele Krantz invited the commissioners to mull it over and come up with a better choice.

She served on the building committee with County Administrative Officer Mike Pence, Superintendent of Schools Marcia Sheffels and Maintenance Director Jed Fisher.

“These are plain compared to some of the names we threw out,” Krantz said. She had suggested, tongue in cheek, that it be named the Flathead County Money Pit.

Another idea was the Capital Exchange Building, which the commissioners decided sounded too stock market-like.

Joking aside, the remodeling of the Blue Building is progressing on schedule and the displaced departments, which have been operating temporarily in the Earl Bennett Building, should be moved back into their refurbished office space by mid-December.

A major component of the project is the relocation of the Treasurer’s Office tax and accounting departments from the lower level to the main floor.

Those departments will consolidate with the motor-vehicle department for increased efficiency.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.