National Trails Day: Every year, GVLT participates in a nationwide event called National Trails Day. On June 7th, Bozeman community members will volunteer their time to work on the Main Street to the Mountains Trail system. This year’s volunteer work projects include new trail construction at Highland Glen Nature Preserve and family-friendly trail resurfacing around Lindley Park. Volunteers will meet at 9:00am at the Lindley Park Pavilion to get tools and trail assignments.
Projects will wrap up around 12:00 and lunch, donated by Baja Fresh, will be served at the pavilion at 12:30pm. There is no registration necessary for this event and it is free and open to the public. Volunteers are asked to bring sunscreen, layers for weather, sturdy shoes, hat, and gloves. GVLT will provide some tools, but if possible volunteers are asked to bring shovels, rakes, and wheelbarrows.
Many thanks to generous sponsors: Rocky Mountain Credit Union, 360 Pet Medical, Allegra Marketing, Amatics CPA, Baja Fresh, Crowley Fleck Attorneys, McKinstry, Stockman Bank and others.
Longest Day of Trails: Join GVLT supporters for a dawn-to-dusk biking celebration on June 20th. The event kicks off at Montana Aleworks with guided bike rides throughout the day on various town loops from sunrise (6:00am) to sunset (9:00pm). Rides vary in ability and length. Spin around the Main Street to the Mountains trails for a few miles, a single loop, or the entire day. $35 GVLT memberships are encouraged for participants. Members receive gift certificates to a number of other local businesses at the event. From 4pm-10pm, riders and onlookers will enjoy music from Jawbone Railroad and outside dining at Aleworks.
For more information on either of these upcoming GVLT events, please contact EJ Porth at ej@gvlt.org or 406-587-8404 ext. 8.
Bozeman just officially gained its first new park using the Trails, Open Space and Parks bond funding. In December 2013, the Bozeman City Commission unanimously approved using approximately $600,000 funds from the Trails, Open Space and Parks Bond to purchase nine acres of land just north of Bozeman Pond Park. Yesterday the Gallatin Valley Land Trust (GVLT) sold the land to the City of Bozeman.
Recognizing the land as critical open space in an underserved and quickly growing part of town, the Gallatin Valley Land Trust (GVLT) purchased the land in December using financing from The Conservation Fund and privately raised funds. GVLT filled a unique role in this transaction by stepping up to swiftly purchase the land, which had other offers from residential developers, and aligned partner nonprofits to help create even greater public benefit. HAVEN has purchased 3 acres of the 12 acre parcel as a site for a future new shelter for domestic violence victims. Run Dog Run has agreed to create a fenced, off leash dog park on another portion of the park.
What’s next? The City of Bozeman has taken over ownership of the property as a city park. GVLT will remain an integral part of the next stages of the design and planning process and has long held a vision for trail and park connections in the area of Bozeman Ponds to provide recreation, transportation, and safe non-motorized routes to schools and other community services.
The City of Bozeman’s Park and Recreation Advisory Board has begun coordinating the master planning process. A public survey will be released in May and two public meetings will be held at City Hall on May 20 and May 27. The community is encouraged to participate and provide input about the development of the new parkland. An additional $400,000 of Trails, Open Space, and Park Bond funds have been allocated to improve the parkland for public use. GVLT, Run Dog Run, and other partners have matched a total of $130,000 privately funded dollars to create additional improvements in the park.
Current proposals for the park include a natural area, paved and natural surface trails, stream enhancements, picnic facilities, and a natural playground. It will also include a paved parking area and restroom facilities. Additional acreage will be dedicated to a fenced off-leash dog park. Trails will connect the current park with the newly acquired park land totaling a combined 24 acres, to create one of the largest city parks in Bozeman.
The public is invited and encouraged to participate in the master planning process. Kelly Pohl, Associate Director of GVLT, says “we’re excited that this project is moving forward so quickly. We anticipate that this park will be the first TOP funded projects that the public can use and enjoy.”
For questions or comments, please call Penelope Pierce at 406-587-8404 ext. 5 or penelope@gvlt.org.
Big Sky Resort Golf Course opens for public play Friday, May 23, 2014, along with the Bunker Bar and Grill. The 18-hole Arnold Palmer designed resort course is the closest Montana golf course to Yellowstone National Park’s West Entrance. Big Sky Resort Golf Course hosts seven tournaments, women’s and men’s clinics and offers online tee time booking.
“The course crew has done a fabulous job bringing the golf course out of its winter slumber,” says Mark Wehrman, PGA Head Golf Professional at Big Sky Resort Golf Course. “The greenside bunkers have all been upgraded with lighter quality sand and the fairway bunkers will be completed this year.”
Course tournaments will increase this summer with the new Two Player Spring Draw Tournament on Saturday, June 7, 2014 which is a 27-hole tournament with the first 18 holes as a Two Player Better Ball and the last nine holes as a blind draw partner scramble. The season long Match Play tournament signups begin opening day for a 32 player field and each player is guaranteed two matches.
Wehrman coaches 13 weeks of golf clinics with the Saturday clinic open to all at 12:00pm, Ladies’ clinic each Tuesday at 10am or 5:30pm and Men’s clinic each Wednesday at 5:30pm. Drop-ins welcome and discounts are available when purchasing the 13 week clinic series. Wehrman also provides quick golf tips via YouTube at Big Sky Resort Golf with new tips being added throughout the summer.
“I believe in building upon the natural swing and ability of the golfers who take my clinics,” said Wehrman. “I don’t overload my student with too much information. Swing and shot diagnosis will be made through ball flight tendencies, divot examination and a strong focus on the fundamentals. I explain what they need to do, to improve, and how to execute it. It’s about the long-term enjoyment of the game through short-term results and success.”
Big Sky Resort Golf Course received the 2012 GRAA Top 50 Range in the Public Category award and Wehrman received the PGA Horton Smith Award recognizing PGA Professionals who are model educators of their fellow PGA Professionals. The golf course is 6,600 feet above sea level offering longer drives, spectacular views of Lone Peak, and winds along the banks of the West Fork of the scenic Gallatin River.
Contact the Pro Shop at 406-995-5780 or visit www.bigskyresort.com/golf for more information. Tee times can be made online at www.bigskyresort.com/teetimes.
Athletes and sports fans alike will benefit from the $3.2 million upgrade of the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse arena that begins in May. The renovation calls for a complete new running surface, upgraded seating, new sound system and venue curtains.
Track athletes who will train and compete on the new state-of-the-art surface are not the only ones benefitting from the arena upgrades, according to Duane Morris, director of the Event Services Division for Auxiliary Services at MSU. Sports fans and patrons will appreciate upgraded seating in the lower level seats on the north and south sides of the arena complete with backrests and cup holders.
“It’ll be a whole new game day environment,” Morris said.
Morris said that because the current arena floor is cracked and peeling, a wooden floor had to be laid down before each indoor track meet for the athletes’ safety. “Replacing the floor is critical for the safety of our athletes and patrons,” Morris said. “The new floor will allow our athletes to train and compete on the same world-class floor.”
MSU head track and cross-country coach Dale Kennedy is excited about the impact the floor will have on training, competing and recruitment.
“We’ve got a great track program with 97 athletes on the roster,” Kennedy said. “This new floor will positively impact cross-country as well as indoor and outdoor track programs.”
Kennedy said that the blue and gold alternating lanes will look beautiful, and the 16 millimeter Mondo Surface is the latest material for indoor running surfaces.
“The current surface has been there since 1980 and really should have gone out along time ago,” Kennedy said, citing the high risk of injury. “Training was compromised by the old surface.”
Facility operations staff will have the ability to separate the upper level of the arena through the installation of a state-of-the-art curtaining system used in most NBA arenas.
“This will offer a more intimate environment for events including basketball games,” Morris said. “The curtains offer flexibility as to how we use the space, and they are amazingly efficient. Within minutes of finishing a basketball game, the curtains can be raised to allow for other activities.”
Originally built in 1957 with student building fees, the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse is an iconic building in the Gallatin Valley. It is used as a site for graduations, convocations, athletic competitions, sporting events, Montana youth programs, expos and major concerts.
“The new arena floor, seats, sound system and venue curtains will help us better meet the multi-purpose uses of this building,” Morris said. “And the new sound system will deliver a clearer sound with equal coverage throughout the arena.”
Brick Breeden offices will remain open during the renovation and no events were cancelled, although some were relocated.
“This has been a great example of sharing resources and accommodating different groups with different needs,” Morris said. “Everyone has worked together to make this as seamless as possible, and we will take similar steps next fall to shift events to the fieldhouse and other facilities while the SUB ballrooms are renovated.”
In March the Board of Regents of Higher Education authorized funding to upgrade the arena. The Associated Students of MSU will contribute $1 million to the renovation. The remaining funds will come from athletic-donated funds and net Auxiliary Services revenues and from revenue generated from building user charges. The money contributed by ASMSU is from student building fees designated for maintaining campus facilities. Using these funds will not increase student fees.
Lissa Barber’s photography exhibit From Cuba with Love: Faces & Places will be on display in the Atrium Gallery at the Bozeman Public Library May 1 through June 30, 2014. The Bozeman Public Library Foundation, sponsors of the exhibit, will host an artist’s reception Friday, May 9, 6:00 – 7:30 p.m.
“There's certainly not just one thing about Cuba that pulls my heart strings” says Barber, “What I know for sure is that Cuba and her people speak to me.” Barber, who has a journalism degree from Ohio University and has worked in both the journalism and photography fields, is currently a professional portrait photographer in Bozeman. “I started playing with a camera when I was nine or ten years old. I coupled my love of horses with making photographs of them using an old Kodak Brownie camera.”
She finds portrait photography to be an art form that provides endless opportunities to capture a person’s nature. She took this passion to Cuba in January, 2011, with a group of photographers, and again in November, 2013, as a member of a women’s delegation to attend an International Women’s Symposium, and wants to share with the public what she has captured and learned about this intriguing island.
“Visions of what life in Havana in its ‘hey-day’ must have been like are thrilling. The Revolution has left its mark everywhere. And, the stories of what transpired in and around that time is an element I'm fascinated with. Cuba is ninety miles south of the United States, yet so far away in many respects,” says Barber.
The exhibition will be on display during Library hours. A percentage of photograph sales will go to the Bozeman Public Library Foundation to ensure continuation of cultural programs at the Library for public benefit.
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