Power restored to Melita Island

Five months after a cable providing the only source of power to Camp Melita Island failed, the lights are back on for the Montana Council of Boy Scouts’ recreational paradise.

The 5,000-foot cable, stretching along the mainland and the bottom of Flathead Lake, died after 40 years of delivering power to the island. 

Camp Melita Island is owned by the Montana Council of Boy Scouts, and hosts camps and programs that bring in people from across the country.

“This was a big project for us to get the power back on,” said Peter Jones, the council’s chief program director who served as the general contractor for the project. “The timing worked out good, we were pretty much working on it full time with a pretty good crew since mid-October.”

The project officially wrapped up Tuesday — aside from some lingering clean-up work — and with little time to spare, since the first troop of campers will head out April 11 for a work weekend.

Mary Matelich, a spokeswoman for the Montana Scouts organization, said the cable outlasted its expected lifespan by twice the original estimate. The new cable is projected to deliver power for the next 30 years.

Jones said he enjoyed the work, and the method for running the line from the mainland to the 64-acre island in southeast Flathead Lake required some creative engineering.

“It was a pretty interesting process,” Jones said. “We took a winch line out with a boat and it went across the lake, into a pulley system on the island and then back. Then we floated the cable out across the water in a big 2-inch conduit. When we got it across the lake, we flooded the conduit and it sank to the bottom.”

Jones said more than 25 volunteers helped out, some donating just a few hours here and there and others working for months. Along with task of getting the line across the water, they also toiled onshore, helping to dig the trench in which the cable was laid between the power pole and the shore.

Along with volunteers, Jones credits a number of local businesses with providing in-kind donations that eased the financial burden of the project. Although the project originally was estimated to cost between $325,000 and $350,000, Jones expects the final tally to come in at less than half of that.

“If we were with a general contractor, they would buy the wire and they would put a markup on that. When I became the general, Rocky Mountain Contractors let us buy all the material directly from the factory,” he said.

The Scouts also received donations on freight costs from Triple W Supply in Kalispell and other contractors who didn’t bill them for many of the extra site visits and engineering work.

But the Scouts still are looking at more than $100,000 that still needs to be paid.

“If the executive board had decided not to put that on our credit line, we wouldn’t have had camp this year,” he said. “But we’ve got it all on our credit line, so we still need the funds to pay for the project. We’re still looking for donations.”

Purchased by the Scouts in 2005, the primitive island is used for a range of water activities, with a number of docks and swimming areas, plus a fleet of rowboats, kayaks, canoes, sailboats and fishing boats. Scouts participate in archery, range shooting, nature hikes and crafts.

Those interested in donating to help pay for the costs of the power-line project can contact the council’s service center in Great Falls at 761-6000.

Reporter Samuel Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com