Page 30 - Flathead Beacon // 4.1.15

30 | APRIL 1, 2015 FLATHEADBEACON.COM
BUSINESS
RESORT TAX INCREASE PROPOSED TO PRESERVE HASKILL BASIN
Some retailers concerned about impacts to businesses
By TRISTAN SCOTT of the Beacon
In 1929, the owners of Whitefish’s community water supply, F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber Co. tendered an offer – $12 for the legal rights to a tributary of Haskill Creek, the primary source of municipal water for the community.
Thinking the cost exorbitantly high, the Whitefish city fathers refused to purchase the land.
The lumber company went ahead and built the intakes and pipeline anyway, allowing the city access to the property on a handshake deal that endures today.
But without any easement of re- cord giving the city legal access to any Stoltze lands, that agreement could dissolve at any moment, and city lead- ers are trying to seize on an opportu- nity to secure it in perpetuity.
Today, however, the price tag to secure those legal rights has grown to $20.6 million, yet city officials say it’s a bargain that Whitefish can’t afford to turn down again, particularly with the property’s high development poten- tial – more than half of the Whitefish Mountain Resort acreage, as well as the Iron Horse and Lookout Ridge sub- divisions on Big Mountain, are located on former Stoltze lands, and in the past 20 years Stoltze has sold almost 1,200 acres for development.
Whitefish Mayor John Muhlfeld watches as Fred Jones speaks about protecting Haskill Basin’s water during a press conference earlier this year.
GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON
If Whitefish were to lose access to Haskill Basin water, it would force the alternative of pumping and treating water from Whitefish Lake, costing an additional $500,000 annually, accord- ing to Whitefish Mayor John Muhlfeld.
Last year, Stoltze and the nonprofit Trust for Public Lands (TPL) reached a deal that would keep the land perma- nently protected for water, wildlife and recreation uses, while still allowing Stoltze’s sustainable timber manage-
ment to continue.
Stoltze values the land at $20.6
million, but the company has offered to sell it to the city for $17 million, but TPL’s right to purchase the easement expires at the end of 2015.
“This truly is a one shot deal,” Muhlfeld said. “The benefits we will realize are untold.”
So far, all but $8 million has been raised to buy a 3,000-acre easement in Haskill Basin, located a couple miles
northeast of Whitefish, and voters will decide this month whether to fund the remaining cost through a 1 percent re- sort tax increase.
“Fifty years from now, nobody is go- ing to care how this deal went through, but they are going to say, ‘you got that for $8 million? That’s incredible,’” said former Whitefish Mayor Mike Jenson, who’s chairman of the nonprofit Pro- tect Haskill Basin, a group supporting the resort tax increase.
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