KALISPELL — The Gateway Community Center in Kalispell is one of three new clean air centers in Flathead County that helps residents escape wildfire smoke when poor air quality seeps into the valley.
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Climate Smart Glacier Country hosted an open house at the Gateway Community Center in Kalispell on Tuesday.
“We’re focused on building community resilience, as we see more severe storms, weather and impacts from climate change we want to build resilience within our communities,” said Climate Smart Glacier Country Community Resilience Consultant Adam De Young.
De Young said the Gateway Community Center, the Columbia Falls Community Center and the Whitefish Community Library are now clean air indoor centers thanks to $20,000 in grants from the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services.
“So the effort is to get an understanding of what it takes to take a facility like this where the public is welcome and can stay for long periods of time, and provide a cleaner indoor air quality for those folks so they can get a respite from the heat and the smoke when it does get truly terrible around here,” said De Young.
De Young said the grant allowed the facilities to install standalone HEPA Air filter units on a commercial scale while also making upgrades to HVAC systems to better filter out wildfire smoke particles.
“That PM2.5 is very fine particulate matter, so it can get through almost any crack or crevasse," he said.
De Young said opening community clean air centers better protects vulnerable populations in the Flathead as heavy wildfire smoke becomes the new normal each summer.
“And so, making that preparation ahead of time is really important because then you’re ready and you’re prepared, and you will have that put in place when the smoke gets really bad and you will have better air to breathe,” said De Young.
An open house at the clean air center at Whitefish’s Community Library is this Thursday from 2-6 p.m.
