Deadline Oct. 10 for beach bond issue

The Daily Inter Lake

Whitefish voters have just nine more days to decide whether they want to pay $3.19 million for a lakefront lot to extend City Beach to the west on Whitefish Lake.

Ballots are due back to the county Election Department before 8 p.m. on Oct. 10. They can be dropped off or mailed in; a drop box also is available at Whitefish City Hall.

The unprecedented ballot issue involves a .44-acre lot on the western edge of City Beach that the city would like to acquire for future beach expansion.

The property, with 99.7 feet of lakefront, was appraised at about $3.56 million, or $36,000 per lakefront foot, but the owner agreed to sell it to the city for $3.1 million. An extra $90,000 would be added to the general obligation bond to cover the costs of issuing the bonds.

Whitefish Lake frontage currently is selling for anywhere from $27,000 to $35,000 per front foot, depending on location, according to local Realtors.

Since there's no money for such a purchase in city coffers, the City Council essentially is asking taxpayers to tax themselves to buy it.

The city couldn't wait to run the ballot issue in the November general election because a buy-sell agreement allows 100 days for the city to close the transaction, and the election department requires 60 days after approval of the resolution to conduct the election.

If approved, the bond would span 20 years and cost the owner of a $300,000 home about $86 a year.