Xanterra getting Glacier National Park lodges ready, but also being patient

Xanterra Parks and Resorts is still getting the lodges in Glacier National Park ready for opening this summer, Marc Ducharme, general manager for the Glacier division said last week.

He said maintenance personnel are still working in the various properties in preparation. Xanterra operates all of the major lodges in Glacier under contract with the Park Service.

Right now, Glacier remains closed to the general public due to the coronavirus epidemic. Lake McDonald Lodge is scheduled to open May 15. But more concrete decisions will come in the next couple of weeks, Ducharme noted.

Ducharme implored folks to be patient and follow the state and local stay at home orders.

“If we want this summer to work, stay home,” he said.

Xanterra has been approved for J-1 visas, Ducharme said. Those are the visas that allow foreign students to work in the Park during the summer months. All told, the company employs about 750 people, both locals and foreign workers, during the summer.

Montana right now requires visitors from out of state to quarantine for 14 days, which effectively quashes any vacationers.

How the country and the state will reopen remains to be seen, but many experts say it will likely be a gradual roll out, rather than a simple reopening of everything.

Ducharme said the lodges could open later — say in June — but it probably wouldn’t be economical to open them after July 1.

Montana has been “flattening the curve” of cases in the past week, with fewer and fewer cases reported each day.

But there’s still plenty of cases nationwide and flare-ups in communities.

For example, in South Dakota, a meat processing plant had the virus infect its workforce and more than 300 people got sick and that number was increasing as of Monday. Minnehaha county alone had more than 654 cases. South Dakota has no stay at home order.