Ronan arch sign down; restoration underway

When you drive west down Main Street in Ronan, you’ll notice an open space under the archway leading to the downtown. Mission Valley Power and Access Montana teamed up Wednesday morning, Oct. 17 — donating their service and manpower — to remove the large RONAN sign hanging from the arch.

Students from last year’s graduating class, plus seniors in the Class of 2019, are working to restore the Ronan sign to its original brilliance. The sign should be refurbished by December, and the large logs making up the archway will be replaced early next spring. By the end of the 2018-19 school year, the restoration project should be completed.

The project is under the auspices of the Restore the Ronan Arch Committee.

“The biggest things for the kids (recent students) is that this (the archway and sign) has always been here,” said school librarian Heather Gray, who is the Ronan Booster Club president.

GYPSY RAY, a committee member and executive director of Lake County Community Development Corporation, recognized the effort of Access Montana, led by company president and community-minded Jay Preston.

“He has the expertise and the history of what happened the first time,” Ray said.

That “first time” was when the archway and sign went up about 16 years ago, when the Ronan High School Class of 2002 played a key role in its erection. Last month, replacement logs from Dupuis Lumber were cut and delivered to Access Montana, where they were “peeled” by RHS students.

Ray shared the fact that the logs continue to deteriorate. The sign supports are heading toward an “unsafe” situation, and that will be alleviated by replacement of the timber that support it.

THE RESTORE the Ronan Arch project has raised more than $30,000 of the $55,000 goal from fundraising, private donations and grants from the Montana Department of Commerce Tourism, Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation, MEDA Mini-grant and Lower Flathead Valley Community Foundation.

Mission Valley Power employees on hand for the Oct. 17 project included foreman Craig Padilla, Tony Adams, Bryce Finley and Richard LaRance. Assisting from Access Montana were Richard Jackson, Travis Michaud, Shawn Barber and Preston.

A bevy of Ronan school students walked over from their classrooms to watch the sign being removed from the archway.

Student body president Kara Holmlund, a member of the Class of 2019, showed her appreciation for the community support of the Ronan sign project.

Last year, the National Honor Society students — Jacob Dreissen and Nathan Dennis and I — really were kind of kicking it off, going to grant meetings and going to classes for how to write a grant properly,” Holmlund said. “And we had Mrs. Wassum’s business class work on a budget.

“This year, a number of the organizations in the school are working together, kind of teaming up to restore the sign … our industrial arts are taking on a large role by being the ones who are really helping out with the wood. It’s a large school-wide project that we’re hoping to complete by the spring of 2019.”

Holmlund said the Ronan sign is “kind of our mark on our town, and we want the class of 2018 and 2019 to be the legacy for the coming year.”

She said it’s truly a “community-wide project” that goes beyond the school. “The city has really taken it under its wing on trying to restore this jewel that we hold in our town. It has a lot of historical pieces to it.”

Holmlund found out from a fellow student that the Ronan arch is the largest in the state of Montana, and by next spring the archway and sign will be a sight to see. “It’s something that is important, historically, to our town.”