County leases JC Clubhouse to Libby Food Pantry

Despite passing on the former JC Clubhouse once already, the Libby Food Pantry will move into the Pioneer Park building as time runs out on the nonprofit’s effort to find a new home.

The Lincoln County Board of Commissioners inked a lease agreement with the community organization on March 16. The five-year contract runs the nonprofit $1 annually, though the group will be responsible for utilities.

“For now, they know they’ve got a definite location and they can start on minor improvements,” said County Commissioner Brent Teske (D-1), who has worked with pantry leaders to find a spot for the organization.

For years, the nonprofit has operated out of the former Asa Wood Elementary School building. In 2019, the school district began pursuing redevelopment of the site after a Kalispell-based organization expressed interest in turning the building into an assisted living facility.

Early plans for the site called for keeping the pantry on location, but those have long since fallen through. Pantry leaders, who have been publicly searching for a new spot since last summer, learned recently that they had a May deadline to move out of the building.

Commissioners floated the idea of turning over the vacant JC Clubhouse to the organization earlier this year. Although grateful for the offer, volunteer Keith Ivers said in February that the building would need major renovations, including roof, electrical and foundation work, new floors and a cement pad.

The likely cost of the overhaul led Ivers and his volunteers to explore another possibility, securing a piece of property in the region and erecting a new building. Teske last week said that, too, proved too costly for the nonprofit.

“They tabled [the JC Clubhouse offer] for a little bit went on an expedition to find another site or location to build a site and quickly found out that was going to be extremely expensive and they could never afford it without a benefactor,” Teske said. “They got some grant funding but nowhere near what it would cost.”

While the food pantry will take on the costs of fixing up the clubhouse, the county will provide plowing in the winter and perform driveway and parking lot maintenance, according to Teske. County Commissioner Jerry Bennett (D-2) said the agreement benefited the county as well as the pantry.

“The building is better off being used rather than sitting empty,” he said.

Teske said the county had minor logistics work to prepare the building, namely moving stored goods out of the structure. He said he already spoke with the Libby Veterans of Foreign Wars post about moving a flag trailer off of the site.

“I don’t see any major obstacles other than funding the improvements,” Teske said of the undertaking.

He made the motion to enter into the lease agreement. County Commissioner Josh Letcher (D-2) offered a second. The vote was unanimous.