State park board reviews land deals, archery range options
Eleven-year-old Audrey Cozad, of Kalispell, prepares to release an arrow under the watchful eye of Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks instructor Kearstyn Cook at Lone Pine State Park on July 1. (Scott Shindledecker/Daily Inter Lake)
A cadre of Flathead Valley proposals are on the table Thursday for state parks officials.
First tasked with 2023 statewide budgeting goals, the five-member state Parks and Recreation Board meets at 1 p.m. Thursday in Helena. The meeting will also be streamed online.
The citizen board will be taking up a pair of land acquisitions, old and new, and a pair of new archery range proposals — one centered on a 9.3-acre addition to Lone Pine State Park.
For valley business, the board is first expected to review a requested $100,000 jump in construction and development costs to initially form the 106-acre Somers Beach as planned along the northwestern shore of Flathead Lake, according to agenda materials.
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks acquired the land last October for inclusion into the state parks system.
Earlier in 2021, state officials had planned that “interim” development of the beach would cost an estimated $100,000, according to the agenda.
They now look to double that.
“Given increased construction [and] development costs FWP is experiencing across-the-board,” FWP staff wrote in its agenda cover sheet, “it is recommended the board increase its approval for interim development costs at Somers Beach to $200,000.”
Denying the increase would land FWP short of planned development for basic public amenities at the already acquired beach.
Approval would allow the “full suite” of basics for beachgoers as the site is fully developed for recreation.
Meanwhile, on a separate proposal, FWP is looking to add roughly 67 feet of public shoreline to Lake Mary Ronan State Park, according to meeting materials.
Just north of the park’s public boat ramp, the added lake frontage would come via a land deal years in the making and now between the local landowners, the Sandaus, and FWP officials.
A previous proposal was dropped following a 2018 environmental assessment, per a change in building design plans by the landowners, according to the agency.
In 2020, legal troubles centering on a park encroachment used to access the Sandau property, and other private site development plans, stymied a revised go at the swap, according to FWP.
The department and family have now rebooted a smaller version of the 2018 plan, according to the meeting materials.
The reboot includes the family trading roughly a tenth of an acre of shoreline abreast of the existing boating and day-use area for slightly more than a tenth acre of upland woods just east of Sahinen Lane.
It additionally includes a fair-market selling to the Sandaus of another 0.069-acre park parcel for about $3,700 to correct the park boundary encroachment, according to the agenda.
Overall, the swap would deliver to the park about 67 feet of lake shoreline.
Lastly, the parks and recreation board will consider two new regional archery range additions.
Tapping a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grant, a proposed purchase by FWP of 9.3 acres southwest of Kalispell would expand the current Lone Pine State Park outdoor archery range for $191,000, according to meeting materials.
The planned westward expansion of the existing range would add 2,000 feet of trail and double available target sites there to 12 total by late August, according to the materials.
FWP has also proposed a new archery range at the Big Arm Unit of Flathead Lake State Park.
The range — planned with a covered shooting line and trail to up to 12 additional outdoor shooting stations — would stand west of U.S. Highway 93 and directly across from the park’s main entrance, according to the meeting materials.
Planned development costs for the range span from about $323,000 to nearly $414,000, depending on options; the Fish and Wildlife Service would cover 90% of project costs through grant funding, with FWP covering the remainder, according to the materials.
Its planned completion would be in the summer or fall, according to FWP.
A full agenda and online meeting access are available at fwp.mt.gov.
The board will accept preregistered online public comment during the meeting. The deadline for registering online public comment, however, expired at noon Tuesday.
Reporter John McLaughlin can be reached at 758-4439 or jmclaughlin@dailyinterlake.com