Dragon-boat festival move delayed

Efforts to move the 2015 Dragon Boat Festival to Lakeside have been delayed, and the proper paperwork has not yet been filed with Flathead County. 

An application to the county for an administrative conditional-use permit necessary to stage the event has not been filed by the Kalispell Convention and Visitor Bureau. 

Director Diane Medler said the bureau hoped to have the paperwork turned in by now, but that has been delayed since the bureau has been unable to obtain signatures from two private landowners who gave verbal agreements for their land to be used as parking for the festival. 

“We’ve had difficulty tracking down the landowners,” Medler said. “It’s just a matter of reaching them.”

The visitor bureau plans to use three land parcels surrounding Volunteer Park in Lakeside as parking lots for the Dragon Boat Festival, scheduled to take place in September. 

For the past three years, the Dragon Boat Festival has been staged at Flathead Lake Lodge in Bigfork. However, the visitor bureau announced in December its intent to move the festival to Lakeside to avoid venue and parking fees. 

Once the permit application is completed and filed, Flathead County Planning and Zoning will take about a month to review the application, according to Erik Mack, an associate planner for the county. 

The county also will send notifications to residents and property owners within 150 feet of the proposed event venue. 

Reporter Brianna Loper may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at bloper@dailyinterlake.com.