Construction projects putting locals to work

While the “car-mageddon” construction

in downtown Whitefish may be a drag for daily commuters, there’s a

silver lining behind the detour nuisance — local job creation.

More than 140 local workers have been

or will be put to work on one of the four major and very visible

projects happening this summer. Those projects include the Second

Street Improvement Project, the Central Avenue Improvement Project,

the Casey’s bar rebuild and the Whitefish River cleanup effort.

The Second Street project is being

funded by a $3.5 million federal TIGER grant under the American

Recovery and Reinvestment Act. There are 50 workers on the project,

including local employees from LHC, Inc. and Stelling Engineers,

both of Kalispell, and other subcontractors. Workers on the site

are making federal prevailing wages, which generally start at about

$20 an hour.

Schellinger Construction out of

Columbia Falls has 10 of their employees working on the resort-tax

funded Central Avenue project between First and Railway Streets.

Workers there are also earning the prevailing federal wage.

Add to that a dozen subcontractors —

landscape, electrical and concrete workers — and there’s estimated

to be 22 hard hats on the job site.

Work on Central is scheduled to last

through Nov. 11 with an early finish date of Oct. 22. Schellinger

says that while it’s one of the smaller projects they have going

right now, they’re glad to be keeping workers busy through the

summer.

Just down the Avenue, a new three-story

building is going up at the Casey’s lot on First Street. Frontier

Builders of Whitefish has 12 payroll employees on the job, owner

Eric Payne said. He estimates as many as 50 workers, including

subcontractors, will pass through the building before the scheduled

completion date of June 2012.

“Quite a few of these guys are skilled

laborers, too,” Payne noted.

On the Whitefish River, EPA

spokesperson Jennifer Chergo says there are about 15-20 workers

being employed for the cleanup effort. That includes workers from

the EPA, Burlington Northern Santa Fe and other subcontractors. The

project is expected to last until 2013 and is being paid for by

BNSF.

More construction workers will be added

to the mix later this fall when Kalispell’s Knife River has a

paving crew in town for various overlay projects and LHC starts

work on a $576,000 contract for the Scott Avenue lift station

project.