Mountain goats take up residence in Sperry ruins

The first “guests” of the season were at the remains of the Sperry Chalet last week — the furry four legged variety. The mountain goats which have long called the “lawn” of the chalet home, have also taken up residence in the remains of the chalet. They could be seen standing in the vacant windows, running through the stone structure last week.

They’ll all be shooed away soon enough. Last week the Park Service announced that Dick Anderson Construction of Great Falls had been awarded a $4.08 million contract for Phase I of the reconstruction of the chalet.

Anderson and three other Montana firms were approached to bid on the project. The other three were Hammerquist Caselegno, Mortenson Construction and Swank Enterprises.

The bid process, which normally takes 120 to 150 days and is opened nationwide, was shortened to include only those local firms in order to start work this summer, the Park Service noted.

The main dormitory of the chalet was gutted by the Sprague Fire on Aug. 31, 2017. Park Service crews did emergency stabilization of the stone remains last fall and those efforts worked — the chalet is still standing, having survived a long and snowy winter.

Anderson is no stranger to the Park or to Sperry Chalet. Twenty years ago it was awarded a $1.6 million contract for work on the chalet and a rather infamous composting toilet facility that ended up costing about $1 million — though more than two-thirds of that cost was for transportation and crew support. It took about 700 helicopter flights to do the work, according to a story in the Hungry Horse News at the time.

Anderson is looking to start work on Phase I the first week of July. Right now, the complex is still surrounded with about three to four feet of snow.

“The logistics are what make it a unique project,” said Anderson project manager Josh DeVos. He said the company hasn’t had any problems lining up firms to make the helicopter flights in for this project, though he did note it will take more than 100 flights the Park Service initially estimated.

He said crews will work in two shifts per week with nine or 10 workers per shift. In addition to the chalet work years ago, the company has done a lot of remote work on private lands and in Yellowstone National Park.

Founder Dick Anderson’s first Park Service project was to re-roof the Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone.

The Phase I work on Sperry includes permanent stabilization of the structure and a new roof. The roof won’t be complete, but will have two layers of an ice and water shield, DeVos noted. The windows will be boarded up for the winter. Phase II, will be started next year and will complete the fit and finish of the structure and will include repairs to the 104-year-old masonry walls, if need be.

Phase II will be an open bid process, the park service noted last week. But DeVos said Anderson would certainly bid on the second phase of the work as well.