Bigfork Rotary reaches goal for Swan River Bike Path

The design and engineering of a two-mile portion of the Swan River Trail will begin this summer and will ultimately connect downtown Bigfork through the Wild Mile trail to an existing bike path at Swan River School and the intersection of Montana 83 and Swan River Road.

This summer’s work will cover the stretch south from Lee Road to Williams Lane.

In order for this to happen, Bigfork Rotary had to raise a $41,000 match fund for the total $300,000 cost which will be covered by the federal Community Transportation Enhancement Program.

CTEP funds are available to local governments for alternative forms of transportation such as bike and pedestrian paths. The local government or a local sponsor must contribute 13.4 percent of construction costs.

Since the county government had no funds budgeted as its 13.4 percent contribution, the Rotary Club of Bigfork acted as the local sponsor and raised the required $41,000 through various fundraisers such as the Chili Feed and Bike Raffle held last spring at The Garden Bar.

In addition to the $41,000, Bigfork Rotary previously raised and spent over $20,000 to build a quarter-mile segment of the trail in 2008 and 2009. The volunteer hands-on labor of club members and community volunteers performed a major part of this work.

In all, the bike path project cost over $60,000 in locally raised funds. Major donations came from the Bigfork Community Development Foundation Trust, Sherry O’Hearn, Plum Creek Foundation, Roundup for Safety, Glacier Bank and the Bigfork Chamber of Commerce. Bigfork Rotary also raised additional funds with raffles, barn dances and a golf ball-drop fundraiser.

Commissioner Dale Lauman thanked Bigfork Rotary for its efforts.

Rotary is an international association of business and professional people whose common goal is “service above self.” Bigfork Rotary has focused much of its first decade on the youth of the community.

Among other things, the club has provided scholarships to seniors, medical treatment for uninsured students, backpacks and dictionaries for all third-graders, landscaping at Bigfork schools, sponsorships to leadership camp for Bigfork students, and grants to the student program of the Glacier Symphony.

Working with other Rotary Clubs around the world and with the Rotary Foundation, Bigfork Rotary has provided a minibus to a clinic in India, medicine to an orphanage in Siberia, wheelchairs and books in South America, as well as latrine, farming implements and seeds to a school in Zambia.

The most famous of Rotary’s efforts to which Bigfork has contributed is the effort for the global eradication of polio.

Beginning on July 11, Bigfork Rotary will resume its regular schedule of luncheon meetings every Wednesday, at noon, at the Community United Methodist Church.

Individuals interested in joining Bigfork Rotary may visit montanarotary.org or rotary.org or email epn@edwardpaulnolde.com or oknancy@hotmail.com for an invitation to a luncheon meeting.

Johnson and Rahdert - Duane Johnson and Diana Rahdert moving a fence out of an easement given for the right of way during the bike path's initial phase in 2009.
Photo courtesy of Ed Nolde.