Evergreen sidewalk project looks to next phase

Evergreen community organizers are marching forward with efforts to bring more sidewalks to the unincorporated area of Flathead County.

The groups behind already planned sidewalks for a section along U.S. 2 are applying for grant funding with the Montana Department of Transportation to facilitate a second phase of the project. The goal is to construct a half-mile of sidewalk north of Evergreen Junior High School.

The Evergreen School District is sponsoring the application on behalf of the Evergreen Community Partners and the Evergreen Chamber of Commerce. The project will “complete the most critical section of sidewalk needed to ensure the safety and access for school-aged children in the area,” the application notes.

Sarah Stahlberg, with Evergreen Community Partners, said the project is about the safety of those walking along the highway, particularly children making their way to school.

“We have an opportunity to create a solution to a public safety issue,” she said. “Children are walking to and from school generally during the winter months where the only place to walk is the shoulder of the road.”

The project, estimated at a cost of $1.15 million, is envisioned to bring sidewalks from East Evergreen Drive to Poplar Drive on the east side of the highway and from Meadowlark Drive to Terry Road on the west side.

On Tuesday representatives of the Evergreen Community Partners petitioned the Flathead County commissioners to endorse the project by signing a letter that will be submitted with the grant application to the state.

Commissioners approved the letter on a vote of 2-1, with Commissioner Pam Holmquist voting in opposition. The letter says that if the grant is awarded, the county would agree to work with the Evergreen Community Partners to facilitate the taxing districts required to fund the project and ongoing maintenance.

“I applaud the community,” Holmquist said. “I think you guys have done a wonderful job stepping up to the plate. But we have phase one not completed, so I’m a little hesitant to move on to phase two when we don’t even know where that’s going.”

Holmquist expressed concern that community organizers may not be able to complete the first phase of the sidewalks if construction bids come in too far above engineering estimates.

“So much as my heart is in Evergreen, and I think you guys do a great job,” she told organizers. “I have to speak for the county on this and so I’m not going to be for this.”

The first phase of the project, members of the Evergreen Community Partners said, is currently $250,000 under budget, includes a roughly $120,000 contingency, and the partners have secured an additional $50,000 in donations to put toward the project.

“We don’t feel that based on these numbers between now and shoveling the dirt time on phase one, that we will not have enough money,” TJ Wendt, with the partners group, said. “We have a quarter of a million dollar buffer.”

Wendt also noted that the letter of support only commits the county’s participation in the second phase project if it’s awarded the transportation grant.

Following the meeting, Stahlberg said the timing of the grant application before phase one is completed is out of necessity to keep the larger project moving forward.

“Everything takes such a long time that if we don’t get this now, we could be looking at five to six years out because these grants only come up every two years,” she said. “So if we don’t apply for this now, it’s going to be another two years before we can even apply and that’s if the grant program is funded again in the future.”

AS WITH the first phase of the project, funds for the matching portion of construction would be provided for by a rural special improvement district and ongoing maintenance costs would be paid for with a rural maintenance district, with the consent of property owners along the affected stretch of the highway. Property owners have shown support for sidewalks and the associated tax districts.

An estimated 20,000 vehicles per day use the stretch of highway. The project has been of great importance to the community and school district.

The Evergreen School District is too small to qualify for bus service, which results in many students walking and biking to school along the busy stretch of road.

Darla Harmon, president of the Evergreen Community Partners, noted that the community has been working toward a solution as far back as 2005 starting with moms who were concerned about the safety of children walking to school.

“Now our kids are in their 20s, but we’re still working,” she said. “The business community, including the Evergreen Chamber of Commerce, has really taken a hold of this because they’ve made it a priority to keep kids safe.”

For the initial phase, sidewalk organizers earned a $1 million grant from the Department of Transportation in September 2021 to create sidewalks from the old Kmart to Evergreen Junior High School. Final design for the project is complete and construction is anticipated for spring or summer of 2024.

In February, Rep. Tony Brockmen, R-Kalispell, put forward a bill in the state Legislature that would have provided $1 million in funding for additional sidewalks for Evergreen. The bill was intended to fund construction for sidewalks from Meadowlark Drive north on U.S. 2 to the intersection at Reserve Drive. The bill died in committee.

Features Editor Heidi Desch may be reached at 758-4421 or hdesch@dailyinterlake.com.