St. Mary Trailer Replacement

L76-GLAC-04-095, H30

January 26, 2006

Dear Friends:

The National Park Service proposes to remove eleven housing trailers from the St. Mary administration area and construct five new housing structures in a new location(s) on the east side of the park. The trailers are to be removed as part of the National Park Service's trailer replacement program. The trailers are proposed for removal because of their poor condition, location within the 100-year floodplain of Divide Creek, and incompatibility with the St. Mary Historic District. Occupants of the trailers are mostly seasonal employees stationed at St. Mary.
The new housing units would be of a dormitory style. Alternative areas being considered for the new housing include: 1) Rising Sun, 2) Swiftcurrent housing area, 3) East Glacier, and 4) outside the Park near the town of St. Mary. A combination of locations will also be considered.
An early step in the National Park Service planning process is to involve the public. We are requesting your comments to identify the issues and alternatives that should be addressed in the Environmental Assessment (EA) being prepared for this project. An early public scoping meeting will be held to facilitate additional discussion with the public. The meeting will be held 5:30 pm, February 28, 2006 at the Student Commons building at Blackfeet Community College, Browning.
Comments can be provided directly through the park's planning website (http://parkplanning.nps.gov/parkHome.cfm?parkId=61) by selecting this project. Or write to: Superintendent, Glacier National Park, Attn: St. Mary Trailer Replacement EA, West Glacier, Montana 59936. Comments are due by March 14, 2006.
Our practice is to make comments, including names and home addresses of respondents available for public review during regular business hours. Individual respondents may request that we withhold their home address from the record, which we will honor to the extent allowable by law. There also may be circumstances in which we would withhold from the record a respondent's identity as allowable by law. If you wish us to withhold your name and/or address, you must state this prominently at the beginning of your comment. However, we will not consider anonymous comments. We will make all submissions from organizations or businesses and from individuals identifying themselves as representatives or officials of organizations or businesses, available for public inspection in their entirety.
Thank you very much for your continued support and interest in Glacier National Park.

Sincerely,

/s/ Michael Holm

Michael O. Holm
Superintendent