Economic development tops council's goal list

Economic development was a top goal for the Columbia Falls City Council at their annual goal setting session on May 4. City manager Susan Nicosia collected the goals as part of the preliminary budget process.

Councilor Darin Fisher said he wanted the city government to do whatever it could to promote economic development, including establishing a tax-increment financing (TIF) district for urban renewal.

Improving bandwidth connectivity to attract high-tech, low impact businesses would help promote the local economy, councilor Dave Petersen said. Painting murals on buildings could help improve the look of uptown Columbia Falls, he noted.

Petersen also called for changing the look of the U.S. 2 and Nucleus Avenue intersection as a “hook” to get tourists on their way to Glacier National Park to turn left uptown. That could include narrowing U.S. 2 for several blocks with a vegetated median “so people will know we exist,” he said.

“You have to be careful what you wish for,” mayor Don Barnhart noted. “You might get wider lanes and higher speed limits instead when they redo the highway next year.”

Establishing a dogpark in town was another common goal, but councilor Doug Karper said it should be funded and maintained by a citizen-led foundation.

“We have lots of parks already and can’t afford to maintain them,” he said.

Barnhart noted that the Columbia Falls Community Foundation already exists and can be used to support such projects.

“I know they’ll support a dogpark,” he said.

Nicosia said she sits on the Community Foundation board, which has a few openings and a Web site but was not actively campaigning for funds so as not to compete with other nonprofits in town. The Community Foundation could accept donations earmarked for a dogpark, she said.

Karper also stressed that the city “should keep up on maintaining infrastructure and don’t let things slip,” adding that their sister city, Whitefish, has lots of nice, new things “but the worst streets, I’m told.”

The city could really benefit from a motel or hotel, councilor Mike Shepard said, but he also wanted the city to encourage property owners to “spiff up their storefronts.”

Councilor Jenny Lovering wanted the city to continue to promote Columbia Falls as a “walking community” despite the U.S. 2 barrier and to do what it could to get the North Fork Road paved to the Camas Bridge.

Shepard asked if the Columbia Falls Area Chamber of Commerce and Montana’s congressional delegation could play a role in getting the 12 miles of dirt road paved.

“We also need to get the three county commissioners involved,” Barnhart said.

“Last time we tried to get the North Fork Road paved, Commissioner Jim Dupont and Montana Department of Transportation director Jim Lynch took the lead,” Shepard recalled.

Petersen said he wanted the city to continue pushing for a cleanup of the Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. smelter site and construction of a path from Third Avenue East down the steep hill to River’s Edge Park.

Barnhart wanted the city to continue its sidewalk upgrade subsidy program, do what it could to get a quiet zone established at the Fourth Avenue West railroad crossing, support citizen efforts to get the Old Main building at the Montana Veterans Home fixed up, and finish the 40-year-old job of getting properties inside the city off septics and onto city sewer.

“Some items have been on this goals list a long time,” he said.