A survey of Montana Developmental Center land that county and state officials need to better understand how they might repurpose the facility will likely begin in March, a state official said.
Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation “is in the process of getting this work under contract,” according to a statement provided Jan. 30 by Gov. Steve Bullock’s Press Secretary Marissa Perry.
The two-phase project will comprise an “extensive” title search followed by a field survey to identify and separate the parcels identified in the first phase, her email states.
Ownership of the land the MDC campus sits on “is a complicated situation deriving from a variety of land acquisitions, grants and gifts over time,” Perry wrote. “Any future transfer of ownership (either whole or in part) will be contingent on figuring out exactly what the title situation is.”
Jefferson County and Boulder officials on the MDC Reutilization Committee learned of the survey at a Nov. 28 meeting, where Rebecca de Camara of Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services said that the DNRC was working on an estimate for the survey’s cost.
At the time, de Camara said the survey could cost upward of $30,000, an amount that Perry stated “was given as a worst case scenario,” noting that “phase 1 results may reduce the survey cost.”
Jane Eby, a licensed surveyor and land title expert based in Whitefish, will perform both phases of the survey, according to Perry’s email. Eby “plans to complete phase 1 in March-April” for a quoted price of $5,000, which DNRC will pay for, Perry wrote.
Perry noted that how the cost of the survey second phase will be divvied up will be determined after phase 1 is completed. DNRC, DPHHS and Jefferson County previously committed $2,500, $7,500 and $15,000, respectively.
The county’s contribution followed de Camara’s warning on Nov. 28 of the possibility that funding might hold up the process.
“It always seems like something happens, and [the process] breaks down,” Commissioner Leonard Wortman replied. “We’re not going to let that happen this time.”
The Boulder City Council would also eventually commit up to $15,000 of the city’s money toward paying for the survey in case the state agencies were unable to fund any of it.
Perry wrote that phase 2 of the survey was expected to take about two months and end in June, “possibly sooner if phase 1 reveals [that] less surveying is needed.”
The MDC Reutilization Committee hasn’t let the lack of a survey prevent it from brainstorming new uses for the facility. Committee and community members have been discussing providing various services for veterans and vocational training for Jefferson High School students, among other ideas.
