Ronan parks get boost

RONAN — Receiving a $1,250 check is just another major piece of the puzzle for Jennifer Rolfsness. The director of the city of Ronan Parks and Recreation Department, Rolfsness accepted the money on behalf of the department at last Thursday’s Ronan Area Chamber of Commerce meeting.

Held at the Mission Mountain Country Club, the meeting featured donations to both the Parks Department and the Ronan Volunteer Fire Department of $1,250 each. The money donated was raised during last summer’s Crabfest in the city park. Crabfest, held biennially, is a fundraiser for the two city departments, and the revenue was redistributed in the form of these two checks. Mark Cleary accepted the funds on behalf of the fire department.

The main focus of Rolfsness and the parks department lately has been piecing together parts of a bike/pedestrian path throughout the town of Ronan. Not only does she worry about the path, but the various funding sources she has considered; the money the department received Thursday is encouraging and helpful, she said, and will be placed in a general parks fund that will most likely be used as match money for any grant the department receives. She hopes county, city and federal funds will each provide some financial assistance to get the project moving along.

A major issue has been working around (and with) the proposed highway construction along U.S. Highway 93 through Ronan. Expected to begin in 2012, Rolfsness hopes that the construction will aid the completion of a full-fledged pedestrian path. As of now, the only paved pedestrian paths consist of the path through the city park, a three mile portion out Round Butte Road and the state bicycle path that runs from Baptiste Road north of town all the way through Polson.

As part of the Montana Department of Transportation’s current plans to redo this portion of highway, the bicycle path will expand from Baptiste all the way down 3rd Avenue to Buchanan, a route that will “split the schools and allow kids to jump on and off the path,” Rolfsness said.

This is just part of a plan to expand the path and create a viable, well-used alternative to driving that connects all areas of Ronan.

“It’s not just necessarily for the kids,” Rolfsness said. “It’s also for the seniors, people who don’t have drivers licenses, people that want to do healthy activities with their kids. We just want to provide safe paths and alternative modes of transportation where everybody’s not getting in their cars and driving two blocks to the grocery store.”

Rolfsness just submitted a federal grant proposal to get money for “Safe Routes to School.” If she were offered the funding, she would use it to create a path from Eisenhower and 4th Avenue SE to Terrace Lake Road, an undertaking that would cost approximately $250,000. She won’t know whether she has received the grant until June of 2010.

“I want to do a raised a bicycle path so it will be separated [from the road],” Rolfsness said. “It will look nice. It will be something attractive; aesthetically pleasing instead of just a designated path along the side of the road.”

Her next hope is to get county funding via a Community Transportation Enhancement Program for a portion of path along the east side of town. Rolfsness turned in a proposal earlier this month to try and get CTEP money, funds that are allotted to areas in Lake County that have a solid plan for improving transportation. Ranging from 1st to 4th avenue SE along Buchanan, that portion would help in connecting both sides of the city so that all parts of Ronan are connected. She hopes to hear back from the county commissioners by Dec. 31.

“What I’m really focused on is connecting, and getting all sides of the town and neighborhoods interconnectivity so somebody could jump on the path over here and make it all the way to school,” Rolfsness said.

When that happens, Rolfsness thinks the puzzle just may be completed.