Ravalli County, MT — The gravel parking lot at the Three Mile Community Center has become a topic of conversation over weekly coffee meetings.
Community members said they have raised more than $30,000 to pave the lot but still have not moved closer to getting the work done.
April Wakeman, a board member at the Three Mile Community Center, said it has been an ongoing problem.
“The parking lot is still gravel. It fills with water. We've got drainage issues that we haven't managed to solve, and we're really afraid somebody is going to get in trouble," she said. "The community park is used by everyone; it's a safety issue."
Russ Geise, a board member for Ambrose Creek Community Park and a general contractor, said the project would require much more than laying asphalt.
“It takes like a minimum of a 2% slope to really efficiently move the water," he said. "What we have across this lot is .03%."
Essentially, the lot is too flat.
Geise said the fix would likely require advanced mapping software they did not have access to and could cost more than $100,000 when finished.
Wakeman said money the park receives from Ravalli County goes to maintenance and that the county does not have extra funding available to pave the lot.
She said community support had built much of what is already there.
“When we built the community center, we paid for materials. Groups volunteered their time and expertise," she said. "We've been trying to do it by hand, and we just don't do it as fast as someone who knows what they're doing."
The group has a rummage sale planned on November 2 to raise more money for the parking lot.
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