Kevin Germain named BSRAD board chair
By Jack Reaney ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Although upwards of $750 million is quite a sum of money to come up with in 10 years, the Big Sky community won’t be on the hook for all of it.
Almost a year ago, consultants hired by the Big Sky Resort Area District finished a capital improvement plan that identified $777 million in Big Sky infrastructure investments over the next decade. In the months since, that dollar amount has been a moving target but still hovers in the mid-700-millions.
It’s a huge investment, averaging more than $70 million per year until 2033. But BSRAD board members don’t expect all of that money to come from resort tax and other Big Sky entities. In addition, the number might have been a conservative over-estimate.
During the Aug. 14 board meeting, BSRAD Executive Director Bierschwale said the number—now roughly $750 million—is whittling down as BSRAD follows up with every entity that forecasted infrastructure projects for the CIP.
“About 20 to 30 projects that were slated to happen this year [are] not happening this year. They were not shovel-ready… Some [organizations], in fact, said, ‘Well we’re not even doing this project at all,’” Bierschwale said.
BSRAD is now asking local entities to confirm which infrastructure projects they’ll actually pursue in the next three years, and how much they’re expected to cost.
“If you have projects, we need to know about it. And we need to know about it now,” said board member Kevin Germain.
On Sept. 11, the board will review that list of upcoming infrastructure projects.
Many projects will receive funding from beyond Big Sky and Resort Tax. For example, the Big Sky Fire Department plans to build a third fire station, in the Spanish Peaks Mountain Club area. That project will be funded primarily through a rural improvement district, or RID, plus funding from a public-private partnership between BSFD and Lone Mountain Land Company.
Board member John Zirkle said it’s important for the community to understand the diversity of funding sources and frame the huge infrastructure needs in that context.
“We all know that that big number, $750 [million]—$775, I think, it got to at one point—was a shock and awe that just cemented into people’s brains,” Zirkle said.
He pointed out that for projects like transportation infrastructure, 80% of the cost might be funded federally, with the remaining 20% from other grants outside of Big Sky.
Still, BSRAD will need to expand its capacity to fund infrastructure, even if it requires borrowing against its own public funds to allow immediate investments, and carefully balancing infrastructure commitments with the regular cycle of grants to nonprofits and government services, which totaled roughly $15 million for fiscal year 2025.
“We want to… ensure that we’re still offering grants, but we need to begin to pivot to financing some larger scale infrastructure investment within our community,” Bierschwale said.
“Resort Tax cannot do this all. We need other funding partners,” Germain said, adding that organizations need to “shake the tree everywhere they can” to find funding options.
Bierschwale said BSRAD is exploring voter-approved bonding and creative public financing tools that could help. Those tools may be complicated, but the objective is simple.
“There’s so much property tax fatigue that exists throughout not just Big Sky, but also the state of Montana… [We are] looking at how we can leverage the existing collections that are happening both through resort tax and… potentially, property tax collections, and reallocate those for infrastructure deficiency within our community.”
Germain stressed that the CIP isn’t going to sit on a shelf. One year since the plan’s completion, BSRAD continues to make moves based on its recommendations.
“This is nothing that we’re going to let collect dust,” Germain said. “So this is showing the very active engagement of how we will keep this thing fresh and updated.”
Germain named new BSRAD board chair
Moments before discussing the CIP on Wednesday morning, the BSRAD board voted to designate Kevin Germain as chair, and board member Grace Young as secretary and treasurer.
“Currently, I don’t have any intention on re-running in two years,” said Sarah Blechta, current board chair. “So I think it would be good succession planning.”
Germain was recently elected to a four-year term on BSRAD’s board. He previously served as BSRAD board chair from 2019 to 2020.
Germain said Blechta is the most efficient chairperson he’s worked alongside on any board, and that he will continue her standard of transparency by indicating how he would have voted on all matters except conflicts of interest.
In public comment, Big Sky Community Organization CEO Whitney Montgomery commended Blechta on how much time and effort she committed to her volunteer public service role.
Germain also said Blechta has communicated well with the BSRAD staff, and he hopes to see that duty reflected in the updated officer description for vice chair.
Bierschwale said the board needs to refine their officer role descriptions and term limits.
Also on Wednesday, the five-member board appointed members onto subcommittees for various topics including implementation of the Big Sky Roadmap and possible legislative action, incorporation exploration, execution of the CIP, U.S. Highway 191 optimization and election and ballot initiatives concerning Resort Tax.
