Page 5 - Flathead Beacon // 3.18.15

FLATHEADBEACON.COM
NEWS
MARCH 18, 2015 | 5
W•O•R•D•S of the Week
AN INDEX OF RECENT NEWSMAKERS
PRESCHOOL
Democratic Gov. Steve Bull- ock’s $37 million proposal for public preschool programs in Montana was rejected by a GOP-led budget panel last week on a 12-8 party-line vote.
MIDWAY DRIVE-IN
Last week marked the official closing act of the classic drive-in movie theater
in Columbia Falls, which opened in the 1950s with a 200-car capacity. It closed in 2008 and crews tore it down last week as part of the construction of a new Murdoch’s store.
SPRING
March 20 is the first official day of spring, even though the season arrived a bit early this year with unseasonably warm, sunny days. Golfers are happy while skiers are hoping for a few more weeks.
MARCH MADNESS
The NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments begin this week. Last year, an estimated 40 million people filled out brackets and bet $9 billion. This year the University of Montana Lady Griz are in the women’s tournament.
Old School Station at a Crossroads
Faced with ongoing debt payments, Kalispell considers acquiring delinquent property in industrial park south of town
By DILLON TABISH of the Beacon
Ten years later, dusty knapweed over- runs most of the vacant land at Old School Station.
The 55-acre business park, tucked two miles south of downtown Kalispell off U.S. Highway 93, far from resembles the vi- brant industrial and technology district that developers originally envisioned. Many of the privately owned lots remain empty and racked with growing debt.
SEE PAGE 8 FOR RELATED STORY
Now the city of Kalispell, which is re- sponsible for making payments on the $4.5 million in bonds it received to build the initial infrastructure a decade ago, is stuck with the bill while the site languishes.
By June 30, the city must make its lat- est payment of $285,000. Except there isn’t enough money in the debt service fund or other contingency accounts, creat- ing a troublesome scenario where the city might have to tap into its general fund for the next 10 years to cover the reoccurring payments.
“We’re sitting on a time bomb,” Ka- lispell City Councilor Jim Atkinson said during last week’s work session in City Hall.
Faced with a worsening situation, city officials have devised a plan to eliminate
the growing debt and hopefully spur de- velopment at Old School Station by ac- quiring six lots that are floundering in delinquency and resell them on the open market.
The prospect of local government get- ting into the real estate game is already rankling one city councilor, Rod Kuntz, who expressed his fundamental disap- proval of the concept while acknowledg- ing there might not be a better solution.
“I just don’t like the idea of us being in the real estate market as a city. I don’t think it’s what the city does best,” he told fellow councilors. “But I don’t see us hav- ing another choice. That’s the frustrating part.”
The goal would be to acquire the prop- erty — eliminating the assessment fees
See Crossroads PAGE 22
Empty streets at Old School Station south of Kalispell.
GREG LINDSTROM FLATHEAD BEACON
REPLAY SPORTS
SALE
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Sale ends March 31st
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NRS REP IN STORE 3/21