Development Corporation receives grant

A group of citizens in Ronan started the week off with positive news when they were told they have raised one-third of their goal for a community project.

The Lake County Community Development Corporation has been awarded $15,000 from the state, which will go toward the restoration of the Ronan Arch, located on Main Street.

Gypsy Ray, executive director of LCCDC, said that now the group backing the project, Restore the Ronan Arch, is one-third of the way to their goal of $60,000.

To date, Restore the Ronan Arch has raised $25,000.

Ray explained that since group is not a non profit, LCCDC acts “as the fiscal agent for community projects.”

The funds were awarded through the Tourism Grant Program at the Department of Commerce, Office of Tourism and Business Development.

In addition to the grant, Ray said the citizens are working on other grants with the help of Ronan High School students from the National Honors Society, as well as asking for contributions from the county.

The NHS students are building their resumes by adding the writing skills and working on volunteer hours, she added.

She said if items and time can be donated, the efforts will help lower the amount of money for which the group needs to ask.

Also helping to cut down on funds is that the blueprints for the arch, which was built in 2002 as a class project from graduating seniors, were found at the high school.

“Now that we have those in place, the next step is… we need to measure the diameter of the logs we need to replace,” Ray explained.

To help with the cost of that portion of the project, Access Montana is lending one of their bucket trucks to reach the higher logs.

Ray added that other local vendors are interested in donating logs, but in order for that to happen, the exact dimension of the logs are needed.

Jay Preston, chief executive officer of Access Montana, is working with Ronan students to develop a 3-D drawing to go with the original blueprints, “so it’s more visual,” Ray said.

While Ray said that the project is underway, the current senior class and group are working together toward possibly replaying the “Welcome to Ronan” sign that hands from the arch.

The current junior class will continue raising money and move forward with replacing the arch in the event that the entire project isn’t completed by June, she added.

The group has footage on VHS tapes from when the arch was built, and the high school students have edited it “to make it more social media-friendly,” Ray said, adding that the footage was transferred to DVD technology then to digital.

She said that the footage will be posted online to show the community all of the moving parts of the process.

Those interested in becoming involved with the project can contact Ray at the LCCDC at 676-5901.

Ray said that donations can be made at Glacier Bank in Ronan and Valley Bank in Ronan, as well as at www.lakecountycdc.org. She added that donations are tax deductible.

The next Restore the Ronan Arch meeting will be held at 1 p.m. on Feb. 12 at the Ronan Flower Mill, 106 Main St. SW.