Skyline Drive and Lake County Connectivity Project
This project was initiated by Mission West in 2010 in partnership with Lake County and the city of Polson to reconstruct Skyline Drive in Polson. Mission West wrote a grant to the US Department of Transportation through their first Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) program for $16 million and received an award of $12 million. It was the only rural community grant awarded in the first national competition. The project included 2.3 miles of road reconstruction and 3.5 miles of bike/pedestrian trails on Skyline Drive.
Mission West provided grant writing; contract and grant administration, labor compliance and reporting. Over the three year period, the project leveraged an additional $700,000 in water and sewer infrastructure in Polson and returned the following benefits to our community: Employed 100% Montana contractors, who in turn employed 85% of its workers from Lake County, including 32 Tribal members; and paid $2.4 million in local wages.
