Council considers completing Lawrence Park trails

The Kalispell City Council hopes to come full circle during a work session tonight by discussing the completion of unfinished loop trails at Lawrence Park.

Plans for the trails have been in development since 2017, but funding never materialized to complete the proposed loops. The council will consider taking the trails up again in the fiscal year 2022 budget. The potential budget for the project is estimated at $24,598.

The park property in question encompasses almost 16 acres of land that was added onto Lawrence Park in May 2017, when the city purchased the undevelopable land for $1 plus closing costs from the Knife River corporation.

The area is generally located on the east side of Lawrence Park, with the Stillwater River on the north, Whitefish Stage Road on the east and private properties to the south. The extension brought the total acreage of Lawrence Park up to 56 acres.

Shortly after Lawrence Park was extended to include this land, however, public complaints arose about transient activities in the area. As recently as October 2020, nearby property owners told the Daily Inter Lake they discovered drug paraphernalia, including hundreds of needles, in the wooded section of the park.

The city developed a plan in 2017 to install trails to deter this behavior. Kalispell Parks and Recreation installed 2,585 feet of nature trail in partnership with Applied Materials, Montana Conservation Corps, the Boy Scouts of America and other community volunteers.

The trails also included the installation of informative signs about the surrounding ecosystem and a trail map. It took two years for the current trail system to be built.

According to the work session agenda, “The trail is used daily and has greatly aided in responding to transient activities within this area for both law enforcement and parks staff.”

HOWEVER, THE initial plans for the trails still haven’t been fully realized.

Maps of the original design show two loop trails extending generally south of the existing trails and connecting to the current paths.

Funding reportedly wasn’t available to complete the loops during the initial two-year construction period. The agenda for the work session states, “the loop closest to…Lawrence Park and the connection to Whitefish Stage are the only sections that were completed as they immediately addressed issues that arose.”

Kalispell Parks and Recreation Director Chad Fincher is now proposing to complete the final sections of the trails during the upcoming fiscal year.

That figure includes 2,886 additional feet of trail, as well as bridges, signs, benches and trash cans. Fincher expects to enlist the MCC trail crew to once again work on trail construction.

The council will take no formal action during the work session, and budget talks for the coming fiscal year will most likely start up in early summer.

The full work session agenda, including a map of the trails, is available at:https://www.kalispell.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_03082021-589

Reporter Bret Anne Serbin may be reached at 758-4459 or bserbin@dailyinterlake.com.