School board continues talks on center

The Columbia Falls School District 6 board had another round of discussions Monday night on the possibility of building a community center near Ruder Elementary.

Freedom Bank President Don Bennett further clarified the vision for the facility.

“Our emphasis is more toward a community center that houses a Boys and Girls Club,” he told the board.

He said that properly designed, the facility could eventually expand to house the city library and the senior center. But right now, neither of those organizations were ready to move.

School board members were generally supportive of the idea, but board chairwoman Jill Rocksund said the school district is just starting the process of looking at its future facility needs — namely adding more classrooms to Ruder. The district might not want to commit to a separate center before it has that study complete, which could take a couple of years.

Bennett responded by saying the two entities could work together to get a project completed.

“We’re open to that,” he said, noting that it will take sometime to raise the estimated $5 million it will cost to build the facility.

What Bennett is looking for from the board is a commitment to lease or donate a piece of land for the project. The lease would give the school district more control over the property in the future. The original idea was to put the center just north of the current Ruder gym. But Bennett said a commitment of any piece of property would work.

He said he needed a “cornerstone” to get the project off the ground.

Bennett used the The Wave in Whitefish as an example — The Wave is actually owned by the city of Whitefish, which carries the insurance on the property and The Wave, in turn, leases it back from the city.

If built, the school could potentially incur some expense of the facility, through maintenance of the grounds, such as cutting the lawn and plowing the driveway. While supportive of the idea, board vice chair Dean Chisholm noted that, over the past few years, the school has taken on the expense of programs like the swim team, the arts and a host of other programs in the face of declining state and federal aid.

“While we’re still trying to keep the lights on (at the schools),” he said.

The board also had questions for Boys and Girls Club Director Cindy Hooker on the club’s financial situation. The club used to run a program in Evergreen, but has shut it down and is trying to sell the roller rink it owns there. The club, she said, pays about $3,000 combined in mortgage payments each month on the rink and the former church it uses for offices and programs in Columbia Falls.

Right now, the club has an annual budget of about $270,000, a portion of that comes from a federal grant and the rest from donors and other sources. Hooker couldn’t tell the board off the top of her head what the club’s weekly payroll expenses were.

Bennett said the plan with this project is to provide the club with a turnkey facility to use with no debt overhead.

In the end, the board took no formal vote on the matter — that will likely come at its March meeting.

Bennett said if they can’t reach an agreement, there were no hard feelings — they’d look to build in a different location.

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