Boys and Girls Club looks to build in Columbia Falls

The Boys and Girls Club of Glacier Country is in a period of transition.

After the decision to disband its Evergreen unit in June 2017, plans are now focused on building a new Columbia Falls facility.

The ideal goal is to have a completed building in a year, according to Freedom Bank President Don Bennett, who serves on a Boys and Girls Club steering committee.

The proposed concept is a community center with classrooms, multi-purpose areas, gym, walking track, kitchen, offices and conference room. When asked how much the new building would cost, Bennett said he wasn’t sure, “but if I had to guess, $5 million.”

Ron Nash, an architect with Montana Creative Architecture and Design and steering committee member, talked about concept drawings to illustrate how the building would serve as a community center.

“Columbia Falls is hungry for community gathering [places]. What I was trying to do was give ideas to bring kids together, adults together, families together. It includes a really nice wish list,” Nash said. “But we might as well dream big right now and pare down as we go along.”

The proposal was presented to the Columbia Falls School District’s board of trustees Monday with a request that it consider making a commitment to donate approximately 33,600 square feet of district-owned land near Ruder Elementary as the site of the proposed facility. Ruder is located at 1500 12th Ave. W., and is in the vicinity of Columbia Falls Junior High and Columbia Falls High School.

“I will make this pledge to you — that if you will provide us with the property, we will not build until we have it 100 percent covered,” Bennett said. “We’re not going to break ground until we know it’s taken care of.”

The school district is also having its own facility-planning discussions and targeting its elementary buildings for potential improvements as the bonds issued for construction of the junior high mature — with the last payment slated in 2020.

Trustee Larry Wilson asked if the steering committee had considered using existing buildings such as the former Canyon Elementary building in Hungry Horse, which has classrooms, a kitchen and gym. Bennett said they had, and there are pros and cons to each. One of them would be location and traveling distance from schools according to a parent in the audience.

The board of the Boys and Girls Club of Glacier Country made the decision to focus its energy on the Columbia Falls unit after making the tough decision to disband its Evergreen unit based on finances.

The Evergreen facility located on Shady Lane is still up for sale after it was put on the market in 2016 with the intention to house members in another location, but not without protest from families and community members. Evergreen had 112 members. The club had moved into the rink in 2005.

Ultimately, the decision was made to disband the Evergreen unit, according to Boys and Girls Club of Glacier County Director Cindy Hooker.

Hooker had picked up the challenging task of helping steer the club’s budget back into the black after years of financial hardship when she took the leadership position in 2016.

“We’re maintaining, and we’re in a better place then we were,” Hooker said about the financial situation.

Restoring an Evergreen unit may be a future possibility according to Hooker, but for now, efforts are concentrated in Columbia Falls.

The Columbia Falls Boys and Girls Club is currently housed at 540 Fourth Ave. W. in a building that was formerly a church. The size of the building, which is owned by the club, has limited the number of students who can be served on a daily basis and the types of programs offered.

Currently, the club tries to maintain a capacity of no more than 65 youths at a time. Total membership in Columbia Falls is 106.

“We feel we could serve a lot more kids if we had the space. This particular building is not set up to do the programming like we do,” Hooker said. “We try to break up programming into four program areas. Rotating in a small, confined space is difficult,” Hooker said. “Glacier Gateway [Elementary] lets us use their gym until 4:30 p.m.”

Many members are students from low-income families and families aren’t turned away if they cannot afford membership dues, according to Hooker.

“One of the things I was totally blown away with is we have over 100 kids in our community that are homeless,” Hooker said noting there is a need for expanded services.

Currently the membership consists of elementary-aged children. The steering committee envisions serving up to 200 students in grades kindergarten through high school.

Boys and Girls clubs are community-based, staffed programs that offer fun and educational activities in a safe, structured environment during times when students aren’t in school, according www.bgca.org.

“We want to also be able to supplement the educational resources that our school needs,” Hooker said. “You only have so much time during the day and there are so many things our teachers have to put into that day.”

“What if we could be an extension of that day and what they would they want us to do?” she said.

Extending the hours the club is open is another goal.

“The club is only used from 3 o’clock to 6:30 [p.m.]. We want to utilize it for all times during the day and in the evening,” Hooker said, which would ensure building availability for community use.

Parent Glen Stoddard was in the audience with two boys in tow and talked about the impact that access to affordable, supervised care has made in his life.

“It’s kind of challenging to raise a family. His mom passed away and so it’s just me, and having a workday usually 8 to 5 and from 3 to 5:30, or whatever, you don’t have anybody to watch the kids,” Stoddard said. “The Boys and Girls Club offered a great opportunity for the kids.”

Bennett described a new Boys and Girls Club building as a “momentum builder for the community” in its own transitional period.

“As you look at Columbia Falls today you don’t even have to have lived here very long to see that we’re in a transition mode,” Bennett said. “We’re moving from an industrial hub of the valley to what I’m really proud of — and I’m proud of the industrial part too — but what I’m really proud of is we’re getting to be known as more of a family-friendly community.

“There’s a lot of young people that are moving here, or that want to move here. They’re going to have children, so I think it’s important that we provide them with the most resources we can to raise the best families that they can.”

While the steering committee was not looking for an immediate answer from the school district at the meeting, it is seeking a commitment sooner rather than later. Bennett said he’d like to break ground in the summer.

“We want to move forward. We’re not looking to drag this thing out for years. I mean, ideally I’d like to see a Boys and Girls Club in a year — at least breaking ground this summer sometime and maybe finishing it through the winter next year,” Bennett said. “That’s my hope. I don’t know if that’s possible or not, but we’re going to try.”

While some trustees expressed excitement about the project, there are still questions and details to iron out before any kind of commitment is made.

Vice chairman Dean Chisholm requested the proposal be an agenda item at the board’s March meeting.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.