Hello Beacon readers! As you and I both warm up to our new, newsier newsletter, I’ve got a dispatch from Kalispell City Council’s work session last night about raising parks and rec fees and reviewal of a concept design for the Main Street Safety Action Plan. I’m Zoë Buhrmaster, here with the latest.

The council is pondering the ethics and efficacy of increasing city recreation program and reservation fees. It’s standard procedure, Parks and Recreation Director Chad Fincher said, as the department reviews costs every two to three years and the last fee increase proposal was for fiscal year 2023. However, parks and rec has also proposed fees be charged to Kalispell School District 5 for programs that use city facilities in response to the school district’s own consideration of charging the city for using its facilities, which would break the existing “reciprocal gentleman’s agreement” between the school district and city to share facilities for their respective programs.

With a school levy vote just around the corner, Councilor Jed Fisher questioned whether this would affect how the school district charges fees. City Manager Doug Russell said the city has responded to people and nonprofits that have objected to reservation fees going up in the past. “The council’s response, and I think has always been appropriate, is there are costs that are incurring,” he said. “It’s really not a matter of different leeway for this, we’ve treated everyone the same. This is the cost that we’re incurring that we need to recoup.”

Regardless, the city plans to continue offering free community events made possible by local sponsorships, donations and volunteers. The council considered ways to spotlight sponsorships that fund those who can’t afford the increased costs, including tacking on an optional donation fee to city forms or applying for Round Up for Safety funds. “I don’t want to see anybody displaced,” Fisher said. “I’d rather keep them on a court and busy than in a court.”  

The council also reviewed the designs for the Main Street Safety Action Plan, which will transform Main Street, First Avenue East and First Avenue West in downtown Kalispell.

Some of the safety features the concept design includes are:

• Rapid flashing beacons at marked crosswalks that can be activated by people crossing via pushbuttons

• Curb extensions that reallocate roadway space to help reduce vehicle speeds, provide extra pedestrian space, and increase driver visibility

• High-visibility crosswalks

• Leading pedestrian intervals

• Raised bike lanes that are level with, and separate from, the sidewalk

The city’s next step will be to authorize city staff to pursue grant funds for the design and construction of the Main Street project. See the concept designs and timeline for the project here.

Now let’s take a look at some of today’s top stories from northwest Montana and beyond …