A group of Bigfork community members have organized a town hall discussion to open up about how the little village by the bay continues to grow.
The meeting takes place Oct. 13 at the Bigfork High School Community Room, with the morning session running from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., a break for Tamarack Time! at 12:30 p.m., and an afternoon open house from 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Everyone in Bigfork is invited to attend the event, which will include a presentation from Tracy Timmons of the Red Lodge Area Community Foundation, who helped start the Community Council in Roberts, Montana, which is an unincorporated town like Bigfork.
Without establishing a municipality and developing a centralized local government, in the form of a city council, Bigfork falls under the purview of Flathead County for zoning, law enforcement, and other administrative decisions.
The group calling the town hall meeting consists of Jennifer Bach of the Community Foundation for a Better Bigfork, Karin Henion of Glacier Bank, Chuck Shields of PureWest Real Estate, Chase Averill of the Flathead Lake Lodge, and nonprofit consultant Chany Ockert.
“We appreciate the commitment of those who have built Bigfork into the place we love,” the group wrote in its mission. “We want to build on that foundation to maintain the legacy of a vibrant Bigfork.”
The Red Lodge Area Community Foundation has a $1 million annual budget, with 13 staff members and more than 300 volunteers working with 41 programs and organizations. The town hall meeting will discuss how this foundation got its start, and attendees will have workshopping time as well.
“It’s about working even better together. This will involve creating next steps and group agreements. We don’t know what those next steps or group agreements are. We don’t have an agenda of what they should be. We are promoting the process,” the group wrote.