Senior housing project begins

By LAURA BEHENNA

Bigfork Eagle

The longest-term resident of Crestview Senior Housing, artist Maggie Pontius, turned a ceremonial shovelful of dirt at the groundbreaking of a $2.7 million construction project at the senior housing apartment complex on May 10.

The project will involve building two new four-plex apartment buildings at 103 Crestview Dr., in a meadow between three senior apartment buildings constructed in 1985, the year Pontius moved in. All eight of the new units will have two bedrooms and will be affordably priced, as the existing 16 existing one-bedroom apartments have been since they were new. In addition, every one of the existing apartments will be fully renovated.

The Montana Board of Housing, USDA Rural Development, Raymond James Financial Services, Inc., and Glacier Bank are working together on financing the low-income housing project for seniors.

The eight new units all will be handicapped-accessible and four of them will be “handicapped-compliant,” meaning that wheelchair-users can use them easily, Gerald Fritts said. Fritts, who is president of Evergreen International, a consulting firm specializing in low-income housing, added that disabled people of any age are welcome and encouraged to apply to live at Crestview Senior Housing.

The 16 occupied apartments will be renovated to bring them up-to-date with current building codes, Fritts said. Energy-efficient appliances, windows and doors will be installed, along with new cabinetry, plumbing fixtures, roofing and siding. The clubhouse will be fixed up and will get a large-screen television to be used for instructional purposes.

Sidewalks will be rebuilt to accommodate wheelchairs, Fritts said, and any health and safety issues in any apartment will be addressed. If the budget allows, baseboard heating may be replaced with heat pumps, energy-efficient heating devices that would pump heat from the ground into the apartments.

The project is scheduled to be completed within 180 days from its start in mid-May, according to Carol Lechner, USDA Rural Development multi-family housing specialist. The senior housing will stay permanently affordable, with rental assistance available on some of the units, she said. That means tenants will not have to pay more than 30 percent of their monthly income for rent.

“A lot of the elderly can’t even afford the taxes on the home they may own,” making affordable senior housing necessary for many older people, Lechner said.

“I’m anxious to get it all straightened out,” Pontius said of the approaching renovation. A painter who has shown her work at the Bigfork Cultural Center, she’s “straightening out” her art supplies before workers start fixing up her apartment.

Another resident, Helen Lanphere, said she isn’t looking forward to cleaning out her apartment before the renovation, partly because it means downsizing her huge collection of stuffed bears.

“But when it’s all done, it’ll be nice,” she added.