WEB EXTRA Arlee CDC gives highway updates
ARLEE — During the Arlee Community Development Corporation’s Saturday morning meeting several community updates were announced.
The CDC is giving input to the Montana Department of Transportation for the signs on U.S. Highway 93 that is under construction. Arlee CDC president Donna Mollica said the landscape contractor offered to keep watering and maintaining the shrubbery alongside the highway for an additional year, or for two years total.
“This is an opportunity for us to be proactive in defining an identity,” Mollica said. But, she added that after the second year additional help will be needed.
It was suggested that the CDC work in tandem with Salish Kootenai College in offering part-time jobs to students for watering the shrubbery.
Mollica said she would talk to the Lake County commissioners about paving a handful of streets in Arlee that need repairs.
“I don’t think that’s too much to ask,” Mollica said.
The brown building used in the past as a community center has seen a decrease in revenue in the past year. As a result the CDC, library board and brown building board will meet at 10 a.m. on March 7 to discuss the building’s future.
A grant application is being prepared by the Jocko Valley Trails group for two main non-motorized trails will provide exploration and education for those who travel it if awarded. The grant is due to the National Parks Service by Aug. 1. A board member said more than 20 letters of support for the trails will accompany the three-page application.
An update on the after-school art program touted the program’s success, in that the program has turned into a “social club” while continuing to engage kindergartners through sixth-graders in art. However, program officials said a proposed four-day school week would cause potential harm to the program, as students would be too tired to come.
Mollica said that after attending the last four-day school week public comment session, there are still many questions that haven’t been answered, and concerns that need addressing.
-For more on this story, visit www.leaderadvertiser.com
“I have deep concerns,” Mollica said of the school day change. “We need to get it to where it works well at the beginning. If we lose the at-risk kids we will not get them back. That’s a huge concern of mine.”
She had a meeting with the elementary and high school principal to further clarify the proposition.
Four board terms will end shortly. Mollica announced that although her term will end, she will continue to work as a part-time consultant for the CDC.
“I think it’s too dangerous to have too much in one person’s head, and too much in one person’s hands,” Mollica said.
During the meeting, Mollica also approved the purchase of two recycling signs for the recycling bins by the Arlee Missionary Alliance Church.