Future questions

After many years of public process and multiple public meetings, where residents took the time to turn out and provide feedback on the future of downtown Whitefish, last-minute protests — based largely on misinformation and small-town chatter — are throwing confusion and question into what is a positive step for the future of Whitefish.

Some opponents have mischaracterized a project primarily about economic development combined with much needed upgrades to old and worn-out infrastructure 'sewer lines, water lines, drainage, pavement, sidewalks etc.) and turned it into an overheated emotional campaign to "preserve the historic character of downtown Whitefish" and other appeals about small-town values, none of which really have anything to do with the project itself.

A few people have taken up opposition to this project as a crusade of sorts. They have passed around petitions and gathered signatures based on the premise "do you favor maintaining the historical character of downtown Whitefish?" I am surprised that anybody wouldn't sign that petition. The efforts and the concerns of those who oppose the project are rooted more in fear than fact.

If the Whitefish City Council chooses to set aside the years of informed public input and planning from the hundreds of people who did take the time to turn out and become involved, and instead heed last-minute fears and chatter from people who still largely misunderstand the project and never bothered to turn out when it counted, the future residents of Whitefish — 20 or 30 years from now — will likely have these questions for us:

- Why didn't you take the opportunity to replace the old and aging downtown infrastructure when the bids were coming in under expected budget? Why did you wait until it became an emergency project because of a water main break, or the economy demanded much higher bids? We, the people of the future, know there is never a perfect time to do an infrastructure project, but the people of the future do appreciate that you thought about us and weren't just fixated with the immediate.

- Why did you set aside all of the input from residents, experts and engineers provided over several years and instead listened primarily to the fears of people who largely never bothered to turn out and were largely misinformed in their objections and fears? The public never really trusted civic processes in Whitefish after that. It seemed that last-minute fear mongering and petitions based on misplaced emotional pleas tended to be the tools of the future for public engagement.

- Why did you tear up the downtown streets and not reinstall the sidewalks and sidewalk crossings based on the most modern safety, engineering and design standards? Did you really think that the people who were throwing last-minute stones really knew much about street and sidewalk engineering? Did you think that they knew better than road engineers?

You had a choice to make your downtown safer and more accommodating for walking and families. The truck you based your design standards on was a Ford Expedition, for heaven's sake! So trucks were still planned to be a part of downtown Whitefish. But the opponents felt this still wasn't big enough, and you chose instead to go with narrower sidewalks and to not put in place the safest possible crosswalks that were recommended by the engineers.

You chose to leave out benches for people to sit while enjoying Central Avenue. You chose to leave out any landscaping and just put back black pavement, even though the park benches and landscaping weren't going to take away any existing parking places.

People here in the future of Whitefish really think that wider sidewalks would really have been a good thing for you people of the past to plan for. We really wish you would have made the sidewalk crossings safer. We really wish you would have put in some park benches. We really wish you would have put in some vegetation and landscaping instead of just pavement.

Now that we're in the future, it seems a lot of the people who were opponents to improving downtown infrastructure are now asking these same questions. Isn't it funny how that works?

John Frandsen is a resident of Whitefish.