Parking spaces to be added along Holt Drive

Flathead County commissioners approved a Bigfork project on Monday to expand public access to Flathead Lake.

The commissioners approved the Community Foundation for a Better Bigfork’s request to add parking spaces on the west side of Holt Drive near a Flathead Lake access point. The location is the only public access to the north shore of the Flathead Lake east of the Flathead River.

Paul Mutascio, the foundation’s president, said the community agreed to foot the $10,000 bill attached to the project to ensure people have a safe place to park and access the lake.

“We have two spaces down there, which means a lot of people end up parking along the road and right in front of a 90-degree turn,” he said. “The county has limited resources and higher priorities, so the foundation saw this as an important project for us to take on.”

Mutascio said the project will add 10 parking spaces. He said he expected construction to begin early this summer.

County Public Works Director Dave Prunty said the foundation wrote the county on April 10 asking the county to support the project to improve the parking area, which is next to undeveloped county road right of way.

Prunty told the commissioners that he believed the right of way where the parking spaces would go has been unimproved since the road was built in the early 1900s.

On Monday, the commissioners also agreed to extend the lease with PacifiCorp to use Sliter Park for another five years.

Mutascio said the park, named after a founding family of Bigfork, had become a popular spot for residents and people traveling through the area.

He said Everit and Tom Sliter of Sliter Lumber and Building Materials donated roughly $5,000 to the foundation to pay the $1,250 the community puts toward the five-year lease extension. That money also will help pay the roughly $3,500 the county bills the foundation to maintain the park. Mutascio said the community is expected to give the county another $9,000 a year to help keep the park clean.

“It makes sense for us to partner with the county on this,” he said. “Without the county going in on this, we would have to pay another $20,000 a year to have the park, which is valuable to everyone in this county and an important part of Bigfork.”

Donations to the Community Foundation for a Better Bigfork can be sent to P.O. Box 486, Bigfork, MT 59911.