Opportunity Meeting summary

MEETING IN OPPORTUNITY NOV 2 AT 7PM

Lime Treatment Facility

I know you have all seen them, but I am about to take you on a first hand tour of the Lime water treatment facility at the head end of the Warm Springs ponds..
For your viewing pleasure:


Silo's while walking in...


Back side of facility...


Lime dumping into river....

Looks like a lot of lime for a supposedly clean silver bow creek..

Grizzlies used to catch debris that floats down the river...


Debris caught by grizzlies...

To Atlantic Richfield Company:

Well either you have done a good job in keeping the dust down to a minimum or you have been lucky, due to the wet spring we have had. Either way, I want to say thank you, it has been nice to breath non contaminated air here in Opportunity. We don't miss those nasty dust storms we had in Jan of 2008. I have seen a couple of minor dust storms coming from the repository but not nearly as it has been. Thank you...
George Niland

Nice overhead pictures of Beaver Dam School and surrounding area..

Contributed by Mike Kustudia, coordinator for CFRTAC

Our little piece of history

Well folks, we are about to lose our last little piece of history from our community of Opportunity. All of our fights to try to keep the old Beaver Dam School, have hit brick walls and we are about to lose it. The latest straw on the camels back was the flier that ADLC sent out to every household in Opportunity, explaining how much money it would cost to rebuild the old Beaver Dam school. It also said that there was no money available to rehab it. 90% of the fliers returned, had demolish on them. There is money available out there but if they see that the community doesn't want the building in the first place, they are not going to give the money. Once again, my community stood by us and helped get something done..NOT.. One things for certain, we ARE going to have a park in Opportunity whether people want it or not. Please enjoy, compliments of the folks that care.......




Here is the questionnaire that ADLC sent out to the people of Opportunity..

PARK PLANS

Here are three plans that where presented to the Opportunity citizens by WWC engineering out of Helena Mt. for the park in Opportunity. After reviewing them with citizens, it was noted that most people like them all but want to bring some items from one of the plans to the other plans which was perfectly ok according to WWC employees. They liked some things on one plan and some things off the other 2 plans so they want to mix them together to make a truly desirable park for us all.

WE DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OCPA is happy to announce, construction will begin this summer on the new “Beaver Dam Park and Trail Head”, located at the old Beaver Dam School in Opportunity. Engineers from WWC engineering out of Helena, have held 2 meetings to announce plans of designing a Park in Opportunity and trails in the area. There was a public meeting at the Opportunity Community Club to discuss with the citizens of Opportunity, idea’s for the new park. Lots of ideas came up like a new baseball field, a large mound of dirt for kids to play on and sled down, picnic tables, gazebo’s, a skate board park, walking trails, playground equipment, including equipment that will be handicap accessible for children who might be handicapped. Also suggested, was a duck pond and lots of trees and shrubs. We (OCPA) thinks it will be a very nice park, projected to be complete by the fall of 2009. 2 short years ago, the Anaconda School Board, was ready to sell Beaver Dam School and property to the highest bidder. OCPA seen the park slipping out of the communities hands and thought something needed to be done right now or face losing the last place for kids to play in our community. We started negotiations with the School board to try to buy the property from them. OCPA even went as far as to put in a $1,000.00 bid on the property. At that time, Connie Daniels and Dan Villa, came to OCPA and informed us of a large grant through the dept of Transportation that we where eligible for. We where told, that it was a matching funds type of grant, and for every dollar we sent the DOT, we would get 7 in return. The total amount of the grant was $5 mil dollars but it was to be divided between Milltown and Opportunity, to develop parks and trails in the area and we each where eligible for 2.1 mil.. We could get the grant as long as we put in a trail head that would meet up with the “Greenway trail” coming from Butte. Well, needless to say, the negotiations where on. Finding a use for the old building has sort of set us back but there are some great idea’s out there to put it to use and save the historical values that the old part of the building posses. An Interpretive center is just one idea for the building. There could be tons of exhibits in that old building that really need to be on display. It could also be a museum to store all the historical items around Anaconda that the county has no room to store and there are several other idea’s floating around that sound real good as well. If at all possible, the people of Opportunity would really like to see the building stay. If you can think of a reason to keep the building to where it would be self sustaining or would like to take part in planning this great park, then call Shawn Higley at 406-443-3962 or send him an email at shigley@wwcengineering.com and give him your thoughts of what you would like to see in YOUR park. Right now is the designing phase and if you don’t get in on it, you will lose your chance of being part of this great project.