Page 8 - Flathead Beacon // 9.16.15

CITY BEAT 14 COUNTY BEAT 14 COURT BEAT 15 Newsworthy
New Bigfork Food Bank Ready to Serve Facility to provide more meals and firewood to those in need
BY DILLON TABISH OF THE BEACON
Boxes of food began filling the long,
empty shelves inside the new Bigfork Food Bank last week as a devoted team of volunteers prepared for the upcoming opening. The food — fresh garden pro- duce, cans of soup and other basic items — piled high inside the building that, like the food, was made possible largely thanks to donations from the community. Outside, volunteer contractors from Ron Incoronato and Co. were finishing a large shed that will store donated firewood for anyone needing help staying warm this winter.
“We are so grateful to our community. Bigfork has got to be the best place to live,” Ann Tucker, director of the Bigfork Food Bank, said.
After years of planning and develop- ment, the new food bank is ready to serve. Three times as large as the former space next door on Montana Highway 35, the food bank will be able to provide meals and firewood to more people in need than anytime in its 25-year history.
The food bank will begin distributing items Sept. 22. A grand-opening cere- mony will be held in October.
This year the Bigfork site is on pace to
Volunteer Annie Wohl arranges boxes of overstock food at the Bigfork Food Bank. GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON
“It’s overwhelming. The support has been unbelievable,” Tucker said.
Roughly 75 percent of the funds needed to build the new site — roughly $200,000 — came from private donors, she said. The rest came from grants.
An additional $90,000 is still needed to finish fundraising efforts, and upcoming events are being finalized to rally support. One event, a garage sale that will include items from the old site is slated for Oct. 3 in front of the food bank.
The creation of the new site has fallen on the shoulders of 12 passionate staffers and other community members who work solely on a volunteer basis. Nobody is paid for his or her services.
“It’s such a heartwarming feeling to be able to help someone out,” Volunteer Carol Rockwell said.
“We get to meet a lot of wonderful peo- ple who come here,” Tucker added. “Cir- cumstances have put them in a compro- mised situations and we’re just here to help.”
The food bank is located at 7535 High- way 35 near Bigfork. Donations can be sent to PO Box 850. Food is distributed the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Call 837-3179.
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serve 496 people on average per month — or roughly 100 families — and distrib- ute 38 tons of food, more than last year, according to Tucker.
This growing need is what led to the fundraising efforts to build a new site with more room and adequate resources, including a large $20,000 walk-in freezer that was gifted by an anonymous donor.
The new site will also have two bathrooms instead of one; a spacious donation area; and a waiting room where people can find information about job postings or upcom- ing events in the community. Another anonymous resident saw the need for free wood in the window and donated the supplies for the shed being built outside by Incoronato’s crew.
Court Sides With County in Growth Policy Dispute Citizens for a Better Flathead group argued the policy’s 2012 updates did not comply with regulations
BY MOLLY PRIDDY OF THE BEACON
A District Court judge has sided with
Flathead County in a lawsuit claiming the county did not comply with rules or regulations when adopting amendments on the growth policy.
Citizens for a Better Flathead filed the lawsuit against the Flathead County Commission, specifically former Com- missioner Dale Lauman and Commis- sioners Pam Holmquist and Cal Scott, in 2014.
The lawsuit argued that neither the county planning board’s recommenda- tions of changes to the 2007 Flathead County Growth Policy nor the commis- sion’s adoption of the 2012 growth policy included findings of fact supporting the changes, documentation of rationale, or
addressing or incorporating the public’s concerns.
Further, the lawsuit stated that the commission failed to follow “mandatory criteria and procedures” in the growth policy-updating process, making the county’s resolution to accept the changes “arbitrary and capricious.”
CBF also alleged several of the growth policy amendments did not meet the standards of public health, safety, mor- als, convenience, order or general wel- fare, and that the property rights provi- sion violated the Growth Policy Act and the Montana Constitution.
In her Aug. 17 decision, Judge Heidi Ulbricht struck an affidavit and report from Kathleen McMahon, a professional land-use planner who analyzed the Flat- head County situation for CBF, because
expert testimony was not necessary to determine whether the commission fol- lowed the law.
Both the county and CBF asked Ulbricht to issue summary judgment in the case, with the county claiming the 2012 growth policy was properly adopted after numerous public and duly-noticed meetings.
Ulbricht sided with the county in most of the arguments, replying to the alle- gation that the planning board and the commission failed to adequately con- sider and incorporate public comment into their 2012 decision with a review of all the public comments made, com- ments from the commission about said comments, and a reminder that the court cannot “engage in further analysis with- out substituting its own opinion for that
of the Commissioners, which it is prohib- ited from doing. It is not the function of the judiciary to sit as a super-legislature.”
Many of the county’s arguments relied on the response that the growth policy is not a regulatory document, and Ulbricht agreed, especially in the case of the growth policy’s private property rights section.
Ulbricht said the clause doesn’t pro- mote violating the right to a clean and healthful environment, as guaranteed in Article II of the Montana Constitu- tion, because the document itself isn’t regulatory.
“The clause clearly provides that any regulation affecting property should fur- ther public health, safety, or general wel- fare,” Ulbricth wrote.
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SEPTEMBER 16, 2015 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM