In December of 2023 Cascade County Commissioners allocated funds to several capital projects including replacing the roof of the Pacific Steel and Recycling Arena and the Exhibition Hall at the Montana Expo Park. 96,000-square-feet of roof will be replaced.
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Funding for the roof replacement came from ARPA funds and a one-time federal Local and Tribal Consistency fund, according to Cascade County Commissioner Joe Briggs.
Briggs said, “The local and tribal consistency funds is a lesser-known part of the COVID relief process. Any counties that receive P.I.L.T funding, payment in lieu of taxes, or S.R.S funding, secure rural schools, were also eligible for that funding. Both of those are one-time monies, they're not things that continue. We've taken those two pots of money and then put in some additional funding to get us to where we can get a new roof and have some contingency built in, because you never know when you tear a roof off what you find underneath."
The roof currently in place is the original roof to both buildings. Since the two buildings are connected the roof will need to be replaced at the same time. There have been a few small leaks which have been repaired.
“Well, roof replacements are obviously a big issue and they do wear out about every 20 years. We have a list of rotations that we've been developing. We've been expecting to have to do the Expo Park roof for probably the last three years. We've been basically pulling together the financing to get it accomplished” Briggs explained.
Both the Pacific Steel & Recycling Arena and the Exhibition Hall are commonly used building.
“That is our busiest building, in excess of 80% of the revenue that we generate on ExpoPark, outside of State Fair week, is generated by those two buildings. So those are mission critical, which is why we need to make sure the roof doesn't leak on people. Timing is pretty critical in getting it done as quickly as possible,” Briggs explained.
After receiving 5 bids, A.T. Klemens contract of $2,218,000 was approved by Cascade County Commissioners.
“I would also point out that they did the jail roofing for us recently, which is a very complex product, and we were very happy with the outcomes,” Briggs stated.
Weather dependent, construction should begin once the materials are received this spring.
