ST. IGNATIUS - An extra five mouths to feed each meal might be a tall task for anyone, but Kristie Nerby took on the challenge.

In order to lower the cost of St. Ignatius' skate park construction, Nerby opened her home, and kitchen, to the construction crew, and, at times, their families. Construction started June 14 and ended July 8.

Add cooking meals to Nerby's already busy schedule of 50-hour work weeks and prepping her son to go off to college in the fall, but it was all worth it as long as the outcome resulted in a skate park. Sometimes even the crew pitched in to prepare dinner.

"Mark Scott makes a mean tater-tot casserole," Nerby said. "They would work for so long during the day, then they wanted to cook dinner. It was unbelievable."

The project was finished on time and under budget. The Skate Ignatius skate park is physically completed, but the project wasn't financially done at that time.

The bills still needed to be paid.

Even with $5,000 knocked off the bill because the construction crew had an opening in their summer schedule and the crew stayed at Nerby's house, Nerby said the project still needed to raise about $7,000 in order to pay off bills at the time the last concrete cured.

A $2,000 pledge on Monday brought that number down even further before the final $5,000 was donated later that evening.

If the money wouldn't have appeared in the next week, Nerby, and husband Bruce, would have taken out a personal loan to cover the rest.

The five-year project was finished last Thursday and is now open for skaters to enjoy.

"It hasn't really sunk in yet," Nerby said.

On opening day, skate park participants picked up rock around the skate park to speed up the process.

"It was 90 degrees and those kids picked up rocks all day long," Nerby said. "It's exhilarating and exhausting at the same time.

This was the result of five weeks' worth of watching and bonding with the Dreamland LLC builders. The builders spent up to 14 hours per day working and even went out of their way to add little touches at no cost. When the crew first arrived, graffiti had been scribbled on the skate park. Crew members scrubbed it off before getting to work.

"This isn't just a business for them," Nerby said. "It's a lifestyle. It really is."

The concept and design for the skate park came from Mark Scott, who Nerby said "has a mad genius way of seeing the world."

"It far exceeded my expectations," Nerby said. "The quality is outstanding."

Phase I was completed the summer of 2008, under budget and ahead of schedule. Phase II was going to be a 7,000-square-foot addition before the recession hit and Nerby had to scale back.

The new version of Phase II is about 3,500-square-feet with a kidney bowl and more room for street skating. Nerby said she hopes the skate park will become a regular stop for skaters that make the trip from Missoula to Polson, continuing on to Kalispell and Whitefish.

"They buy gas and food while in town," Nerby said.

If the skate park is a destination stop, it will only continue to justify Nerby's hard work.

But, for now, she has promised her family she won't take on any more big projects in the near future.

"We don't regret a minute of it," she said.

For more information, visit www.skateignatius.com.