Beginning Saturday, the children and families of Libby will have a new venue for fishing and family fun. The grand opening of the Libby Kids Fishing Pond will take place from 9 a.m. until noon at the pond, located on the Lincoln County Port Authority property by the Millpond MotoX track.

The pond is the culmination of more than a year of work by local church groups, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, the port authority, area businesses and the Rotary Club of the Kootenai Valley. Local Rotarian Tommy Cook said the club was happy to work with the other organizations to bring the pond project to fruition.

“We’re excited to partner with all of the local organizations that have come together to make this pond happen,” he said. “There were a lot of church groups, businesses, the local Fish, Wildlife & Parks people and the port authority involved. We’re excited to help provide a safe environment for kids to fish locally.”

Cook said the Rotary Club had initially planned to build a dock at the pond, but the plans changed and they ended up building a paved walkway around the pond. The group secured a district grant through Rotary Club to purchase the material necessary to build the walkway. Lincoln County’s road crew supplied the labor.

Cook said several Rotarians became involved in the project, helping to coordinate as well as provide additional work outside what was performed by the road crew.

“All told, we had about a dozen Rotarians involved in the coordination,” Cook said. “We had about 10 or so come our last Monday for a work day. They did brush clean-up, installed benches and set up garbage facilities to get the pond ready for the opening.”

Cook said the club is looking at ways to partner with the port authority to assist with the long-term maintenance of the park.

“We’d like to do an adopt-a-park type of thing,” he said. “Where we’d help with the ongoing maintenance and sponsor yearly events.”

Cook encouraged everyone interested in fishing and family fun to come to the grand opening celebration.

“We thought it was a great way for us to invest in a community project to help families and kids,” he said. “We look forward to seeing everyone come out Saturday. We’ll have local club members grilling hot dogs and having a good time.”