The Flathead County Board of Adjustment has voted to accept the settlement agreement with the Montana Department of Corrections. After hearing from members of the community last Tuesday night, last night, the Board voted nearly unanimously to accept the agreement, clearing the way to turn the former Greenwood Village Inn & Suites into a Pre-release Center. One catch though: Only three Board Members intended to vote, all in favor. One member abstained and the other was absent. To end the confrontation with the Department of Corrections, the Board approved a counter-offer, which was accepted.
The State Department of Corrections sued the Board over its unanimous decision to deny their plans. Corrections Department attorneys, Charity Yonker and Andreas Haladay, say the Board “engaged in irrelevant discussions, speculated in the absence of fact and made a pretextual determination to deny” their application.
Now that the Board has accepted the settlement agreement, the Conditional Use Permit, already okayed by the County Planning Board and the County Commissioners, now includes two new “conditions.” First, vehicles associated with the Center will use the northwest road, away from the neighborhood. The second requires 10 calendar days notice when an offender is to be placed into the Center.
The agreement now goes back to District Judge Amy Eddy for ratification and dismissal of the lawsuit. And then, the Department of Corrections can begin the process of obtaining the property and begin what they think will be six months of work to get the facility operations. It will be the first in Flathead County, serving 90-offenders who are about to be released. The Department of Corrections now will have seven of these facilities across the state.
The DOC tells us about 15% of the inmate population in the State Prison in Deer Lodge are from Flathead County.
