Meetings set to discuss new Marble Mountain Sno-Park shelter

Five public meetings are scheduled in Southwest Washington to get comment on the design of a proposed rebuilt warming shelter at Marble Mountain Sno-Park on the south side of Mount St. Helens.

The popular shelter burned down in April of 2011. The Forest Service is moving forward with rebuilding the structure.

The meetings are slated for Tuesday at Clark College’s Ellis Dunn Community Room in Gaiser Hall; Wednesday at Hegewald Rock Creek Center, 710 Rock Creek Drive, Stevenson; March 31 at Meyer Community Room, Battle Ground Library, 1207 S.E. Eighth Way, Battle Ground; April 1 at the Cowlitz PUD Auditorium, 961 12th Ave., Longview and April 2 at Woodland Community Center, 782 Park St., Woodland.

The shelter was built in the early 1990s and served as a place to warm during the winter recreation season and rest in the summer.

Diana Perez, acting public information officer for the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, said there is no time frame for completing the rebuild.

Volunteers are assisting the Forest Service and a sources of wood for the shelter have been identified, she said.

Tom Mulder, Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument manager, said he wants to get public participation early in the rebuilding process.

A Forest Service landscape architect will be the facilitator at the five meetings.

“We also see future volunteer opportunities with the project,” Mulder said.