Contractor works to retain Depot Park building

The city’s building in Depot Park will be getting a second life as headquarters for the company that had originally been tasked with demolishing it.

Cutting Edge Excavation plans to move the main section of building sometime the week of April 22 to a new location. The building had been occupied by the city’s Planning and Building and Parks and Recreation departments until last spring when they relocated into the new City Hall building.

“We do a lot of demo,” said Cutting Edge owner Kraig Trippel. “We didn’t want to tear down another building and haul things to the landfill. You go to the landfill one week and next week it’s 100 feet higher. We were adamant that we’re not going to contribute to the waste.”

Previous attempts by the city to sell the building for moving never came to fruition, so the city this winter went forward with demolition plans as it looks to accomplish a number of upgrades scheduled for the park.

In February Cutting Edge Excavation was awarded a bid for the first phase of the work on the park including demolishing the building. However, Cutting Edge’s Vice President Marc Blanden struggled with the thought of having to demolish it.

“When you walked through the inside of the building, it just wasn’t the type of building that you think about tearing down,” Trippel told the Pilot Friday. “We tear down a lot of dilapidated buildings and this wasn’t one of them.”

Trippel says Blanden came up with idea of moving the building and took the steps toward piecing together a plan to save it. A tight schedule for reclaiming the area of the park prior to the summer season made the project challenging, but Blanden made it happen.

“The credit goes to Marc for the idea,” Trippel says. “He was instrumental in thinking outside the box and he got the ball rolling.”

With only a few days, Cutting Edge made the decision to retain about 80 percent of the building to use for its own use at its property on Montana 40. The building will need new siding and a roof, but eventually Cutting Edge plans to use it for office space. Trippel says he “went out on a limb” to finance saving the building at a cost of $300,000.

“This is going to cost me to move it,” Trippel says with a laugh. “But I still think moving it is the appropriate way to do it. We have to look outside the box and keep the landfill from bursting at the seams. This is a way to utilize something.”

Trippel said many folks have been stopping by Depot Park to inquire about the status of the building and expressing concerns that it would be demolished. He wanted to inform those with questions that while Cutting Edge hasn’t yet secured funding for reconstruction of the building, it will be moved and is planned for use.

City Council this winter turned down a last-minute request by the Whitefish Chamber of Commerce to keep the building in Depot Park for use as a visitor’s center. In October 2016 Council also turned down a similar request from the chamber.

North Valley Music School had hoped to purchase the building and move it to the city’s snow lot, but that plan fell through.