St. Regis Visitor Center to remain open despite budget cuts

Despite statewide funding cuts for visitor information centers, the St. Regis Visitor Information Center is planning on opening its doors next season.

According to Glenn Koepke, Secretary of the St. Regis Community Council, keeping the center open will require a series of changes. 

“We’ll need a lot of new funding sources next year to pay for staffing,” Koepke said. “There’s a small grant available from Glacier Country and we plan to shrink the length of the season and hours of operation, therefore staff costs.” 

Koepke added that the reduced hours of operation would likely cut down the cost of utilities for the center and the changes would be a “work in progress” during the winter months. 

“It might (also) require a few volunteer shifts,” Koepke said. “Which will be hard to recruit.” 

The center will also need to replace its state funded computer however Koepke said state funds will still provide phone and internet during the season. 

Traditionally, Koepke said the state funding has enabled the Visitors Center to stay open for 10-12 hours a day, seven days a week to serve the travelling public and added that they usually had four to five employees working staggered shifts. 

“This year the state said they would only pay up to $5,000 for the staff,” Koepke said. “As part of that formula they are requiring that visitors center staff, they don’t say how many exactly, must attend mandatory training somewhere in the state the first week of May and they will only pay for one room – we will still have to pay for travel and meals out of some budget.” 

Koepke said in the past the St. Regis Community Council has helped fund the training trips in order to keep the employees at the center trained.