Work continues to bolster Evergreen bluff

Stabilization work on a slump-prone bluff near Village Greens golf community in Evergreen will resume this spring, but further slumping just north of the project area has forced one homeowner to move his house off the property.

Several homeowners who live off Whitefish Stage Road on top of the bluff worked for six years to develop a plan and secure federal grant funding to stabilize a section of the bluff that first collapsed in 2010, and slid again in 2014 following record rainfall. Then they had to sue the county to get the repair work rolling.

The Flathead County commissioners initially had agreed to have the county be the sponsoring agency — a pass-through vehicle for the grant money. No county money was committed to the project. The commissioners later voted to terminate the grant process, voicing concerns about the county’s liability if the slope were to fail. A District Court judge then ordered the county to get involved with the project.

Schellinger Construction of Kalispell and Tetra Tech of Missoula were awarded the nearly $1 million contract, and the hauling of material to the slide area began last fall.

“Schellinger did a good portion of the work last fall,” county grant writer Whitney Aschenwald said. “They’ve been monitoring the project area. Everything looks good, with no sloughing in our project area.”

Aschenwald said the construction company will start work again once the area dries out enough.

Scott Gearhart, one of the homeowners who helped spearhead the stabilization project, said the area now “looks great in what Schellinger was able to accomplish.

“I don’t see any movement in the dirt,” he said.

Meanwhile, AN additional slide just north of the project has prompted Carl Wenigar to sell his house and have it moved off the property. Wenigar, who could not be reached for comment, approached the commissioners about a year ago Aschenwald said, about having the county get involved in further stabilization. She said the commissioners “decided not to go that route.”

Wenigar’s next-door neighbor, Todd Sharpe, said Wenigar’s home has been moved off the foundation and is waiting to be moved off the property.

Even though Sharpe’s home isn’t as close to the bluff as Wenigar’s house was, Sharpe said he’s worried about further slumping. The heavy spring rains add to his worry.

The mitigation work doesn’t include the slide to the north of the initial slide area.

“Nobody’s willing to work on it,” Sharpe said.

He has lived on the bluff since 2012 and owns two lots there. Sharpe said he wasn’t too concerned about the initial slide when he purchased his property because a plan was in the works to stabilize it with grant money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Then the homeowners ran into resistance from the county and a second slide occurred in 2014.

“There are other areas on that cliff that are sloughing, farther to the north it seems like it’s growing,” Sharpe said. “The reality is the entire area is suspect, and truthfully I think it could have been mitigated if they had put drains down Whitefish Stage to the bridge, to de-water the bluff.”

Sharpe said he was able to get the taxable value of his home reduced somewhat because of the precarious situation, and will try to get a further tax reduction.

After the court intervened, the project stalled again because the county received no bids from contractors. And the cost more than doubled, to $1.2 million.

The mitigation includes drainage improvements, a gravel buttress, granular backfill slope support and some flattening of the slope brow, accompanied with revegetation and reseeding.

To secure the rest of the money needed for the slope fix, Aschenwald took the lead in applying for additional grant money to handle the cost overrun. The county won an additional $798,000 from FEMA, which included an innovative in-kind 25 percent match from property owners valued at $176,000.

Homeowners worked with the Flathead County Economic Development Authority to get the fill dirt needed for the project. The economic development authority is supplying 17,600 yards of soil it needs removed from the Glacier Rail Park project, at an in-kind cost of $10 per yard.

Homeowners also chipped in an additional $23,500 in cash, beyond their original cash match of $102,000 for the $400,000 FEMA grant.

The original grant, combined with the $798,000, is covering the $1.2 million projected cost.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.