By Jason Stuart
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
Investment in infrastructure will once again be the hottest issue when the Montana Legislature convenes this coming January, and supporters of Makoshika State Park are looking to get out in front of that issue by building a solid case for why funding for park improvements should be included as part of whatever infrastructure bill comes out of the next session.
Dawson County Economic Development executive director Cathy Kirkpatrick is heading up a committee which the DCEDC has put together to develop a “business plan” for bringing potable water to the Makoshika campground. Also on the committee are interim Makoshika manager Tom Shoush, Glendive Chamber of Commerce director Christine Whitlatch, Friends of Makoshika president Jim Swanson and Beth Epley, executive director of the Eastern Plains Economic Development Corporation.
Kirkpatrick said the idea behind the business plan is to have a thorough analysis of the potential economic benefits of having potable water in Makoshika. In doing so, the hope is that state legislators will begin to see not only the current economic value of the park, but the increased economic potential it could have if the state invested in it.
“It’s all about putting it together as a development project,” Kirkpatrick said. “So it’s not just about the water, it’s about what we could develop if we had the water. So what we want to focus on is the value to the community.”
The committee is working closely with Montana State Parks and the University of Montana’s Institute of Tourism to develop the business plan.
Kirkpatrick said by using solid economic data, the picture of Makoshika’s immense economic value to not only Glendive, but the region and state as a whole, will begin to come into focus in a way lawmakers can easily understand.
“We’re showing the value (of Makoshika) to the community, and we’re showing the value to the region and to the entire state of Montana,” she said. “So we’re really trying to tell a good story about how investment in Makoshika is going to have value to the entire state.”
Kirkpatrick noted that a soon-to-be state legislator is actually the impetus behind the development of the Makoshika business plan. She said presumptive state senator-elect Steve Heimbauch is the one who requested the development of the business plan “to help him better understand what is needed and the value of putting money into the park.”
Heimbauch said he made the request for two reasons. One, he said he needs to better understand the issue himself and know there was a real plan in place for the water line project, and second, he said if the project really has economic value to the state, he needs to have that in black and white to show his fellow legislators, especially given that the fight over infrastructure funding is apt to be contentious, he noted.
“I’m going to have to sell it to the rest of the Senate, so I need to know what I’m talking about,” Heimbauch said of his request for the business plan. “What we need to be able to do is be able to sell them on the idea, and that’s why I think we need to have our ducks in a row about how we’re going to do it and how it’s going to produce (economic value).”
For a sample of the kind of economic impact Makoshika already has for Glendive, Kirkpatrick pointed out some data provided to her by Shoush on overnight campers in Makoshika.
So far this year, approximately 4,000 people have camped overnight in Makoshika, and it is estimated that, on average, overnight campers spend about $144 per person per day in the community, which would equate to over a half million dollars in direct economic impact. As solid of an economic impact as that is, State Parks officials have long bemoaned how many overnight campers Makoshika misses out on because they bypass it once they learn the campground has no potable water.
Parks officials are adamant that bringing water to the Makoshika campground and redeveloping it would greatly increase overnight camping in the park. That would benefit not only Glendive, but the surrounding area as well, Kirkpatrick said, and part of developing the business plan is to show that and get people and elected officials from outside of Dawson County to support investing in Makoshika as well.
“When we do this business plan, we want to make sure that all the counties around us understand the impact to them as well, so we’ll be reaching out to all the counties,” she said.
The committee will ultimately cast an even wider net than that.
Kirkpatrick said once the business plan is complete, they will send it to the Montana Infrastructure Coalition “to be part of the bill they’ll be presenting.” She said they also plan to invite legislators from around the state to come to Makoshika for a meeting to go over the business plan sometime after the general election in November.
If all goes well, Kirkpatrick is hopeful that legislators and other stakeholders will begin to understand the untapped economic potential of Makoshika and how funding infrastructure improvements in it wouldn’t be spending state funding on something frivolous, but instead making an investment which could pay enormous economic dividends for the community and the state.
“I think Makoshika park has been overlooked as a huge piece of our economy,” she said. “Agriculture is still number one and probably always will be, but Makoshika could be the second most important part of our economy for Dawson County. The energy kind of ebbs and flows, but it would be constant.”
Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@rangerreview.com.