Renovations planned for Many Glacier Hotel

Renovation work at the Many Glacier Hotel will pick up again starting this fall.

The National Park Service awarded nearly $8 million for design and remodeling of the 100-year-old building’s lobby, the “bridge” between the two parts of the hotel and other work this year.

President Obama’s 2016 budget also calls for spending more than $7 million to finish the job next year.

The funding does not include replacing the double helix staircase in the lobby, Glacier National Park spokeswoman Denise Germann said. The Park Service is looking at different funding options for the stairs, which were removed in the 1950s but are seen as an important part of the hotel’s history. The Glacier National Park Conservancy is looking to support the helix staircase project in part, Germann said.

Obama’s budgets have been good for the historic hotel in the past. In 2010, the hotel received $15.6 million in federal stimulus money.

Over the years, money has been spent to straighten the building, remodel rooms and fix plumbing and wiring throughout the north half of the building. That left the south half and the connecting bridge unfinished.

All told, Obama’s National Park Service budget calls for $3 billion in spending, $432.9 million more than the current budget. His request calls for adding 471 full-time equivalent positions in 2016.

Obama’s budget request also includes $326.3 million to prepare for the National Park Service centennial in 2016 and $242 million for maintenance and repair on structures like the Many Glacier Hotel.

Obama’s budget request is far from being set in stone — both houses of Congress are controlled by Republicans, who aren’t likely to adopt the President’s spending plan carte blanche.

The President’s spending plan received support from the National Parks Conservation Association advocacy group.

“This budget proposal calls for substantial and much-needed investment in our country’s most treasured natural and historical places,” NPCA senior vice president for government affairs Craig Obey said. “As our National Park System heads into its centennial, this budget seizes the moment to turn the tide on years of under funding and put our parks on a path to thrive for another hundred years.”