Trees, tennis courts and design

Columbia Falls council considers beautification, recreation projects

Three initiatives are under way to help Columbia Falls hold on to its welcoming charm and playable atmosphere by way of trees, tennis courts and commercial design.

City Council members fielded three proposals Monday night, and voted to take a step toward one:

. Barbara Jenkins, owner of The Barber Shop on Nucleus Avenue, made the case for trees to help green-up business zones from the downtown area out to the strip along U.S. 2.

Speaking for a group of downtown business owners who began meeting in June to suggest ways of attracting more businesses, Jenkins said the group landed on the idea of boulevard trees. Research pointed them to the National Arbor Day Foundation's Tree City USA program.

Jenkins discovered that Columbia Falls is the only city in the valley that has not won Tree City designation, she told the council. It comes by developing an organized plan for plantings, enacting an ordinance, appointing a board, and chipping in $2 per capita to join up - a cost that could be covered at least partially through credits for what the city already is doing to plant and maintain trees in street rights-of-way, city parks and other city property.

In turn, the Tree City USA program offers expertise in choosing species and maintaining the trees.

Nucleus Avenue does not have contiguous boulevard space for street-side tree plantings, Jenkins admitted, but she identified more than 50 locations among buildings and along the sidewalks as potential sites where the city could plant trees. Professionals would refine that offhand survey, she said.

Later in the meeting, the council backed a proclamation making April 28 Arbor Day in the city, coinciding with the town's annual cleanup efforts.

In conjunction with that, members applied for $150 in Arbor Day Foundation grant money, with a $52 city match, to plant trees. It's a grant the city has considered for the past eight years, but action finally is coming this year.

It doesn't commit Columbia Falls to the Tree City USA program, but council members said they were interested.

. Tennis-court rejuvenation at Columbus Park is the continued interest for Nancy Callan and Mary Ellen Getts, who represented the Columbia Falls Tennis Association at the council meeting.

For several years, the group has asked the city to rebuild or resurface the badly deteriorated courts on which School District 6 tennis teams play. In recent months, the city's new public works director, Lorin Lowry, has worked with the group as it came up with a plan.

The group proposes a partnership among the city, school and county to build and maintain the courts, Getts said. She asked the city to reappropriate funds that had been in last year's budget for the tennis courts but were diverted to other uses. It would help with the group's private fund-raising, she said.

Resurfacing would cost as much as $25,000 but would have to be redone in two or three years, Callan said.

Lowry told the group that the city could supply equipment and labor to demolish the existing courts.

Susan Nicosia, the city's business manager, has been helping with paperwork and research where city involvement is crucial, particularly with a U.S. Tennis Association grant.

Mayor Jolie Fish encouraged Callan and Getts to look into forming a cooperative committee, then come back to the council. The city is interested in the project, she told them.

. In a report from committee chairman Barry Conger, the council got a progress report on a recommendation for commercial development design standards.

Representatives from the council, Planning Board and public have met twice to study what the city has, what is on the development horizon and sample ordinances gleaned from other cities. They are coming up with guidelines for building facades, landscaping, parking and other issues.

"Our aim is to try to ensure that development in the city maintains the rural character of the city," Conger said, "and avoids ugly buildings."

But there are a few sticking points, he said.

The biggest one may be whether they should recommend limiting the scale of individual developments - a question that comes into play with recent talk of large-scale commercial development at the junction of U.S. 2 and Montana 40, across from the Blue Moon.

A goal, Conger said, is to devise guidelines that will apply to all commercial projects. Continuity throughout the city will be a focus.

Conger said the committee is considering establishing business zones to reflect those inherent differences.

Committee members met again on Tuesday night, and will meet at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 15, and Wednesday, Feb. 21. They hope to take a proposal to the Feb. 21 meeting of the Planning Board, Conger said.