Mayor wants to revive local economy

Kalispell Mayor Tammi Fisher called for a “progressive program to get our economy humming again” in her inaugural State of the City address on Wednesday.

Fisher spoke at the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce’s June luncheon.

“Few of us in Montana like change, but we must be progressive,” she said to a full house at the Red Lion Hotel Kalispell.

Lamenting the fact that the economic recession has gutted the city’s housing market, Fisher called recovering from it the city’s top challenge.

She said the city is focused on putting its fiscal house in order and noted the 2010-11 budget is expected to increase cash reserves by $300,000.

Fisher offered a recap of what the city has done since she’s been in office, including fashioning a new zoning ordinance to deal with medical marijuana.

The ordinance is an attempt “to keep the city from going to pot, literally and figuratively,” she said.

Even though Montana voters approved medical marijuana six years ago, it didn’t significantly impact the state until the Obama administration through Attorney General Eric Holder “declared the federal government would no longer prosecute marijuana crimes,” she said, referring to a lack of prosecution in 14 states were medical marijuana has been approved.

The new ordinance, which banned new medical marijuana dispensaries and commercial grow operations as land uses in the city, “achieved appropriate balance in a legally sound and defensible manner,” she said. 

Fisher is looking to the state Legislature to fix the state law.

She noted the city now has a Tourism Business Improvement District, which is a “genuine and concerted effort to maintain the population base while marketing the city to the state, nation and world.” The initiative is both citizen- and business-driven, she said.

The city is looking for volunteers to serve on its urban renewal board and its impact fee committee, she said. Fisher said the urban renewal board will work to update plans that were developed in 1997.

Fisher said she believes the city can help facilitate economic growth through its four tax increment financing districts, which use future gains and taxes for current needs.

Other positives she noted include creation of the new 911 Emergency Coordination Center and working to rehabilitate damaged relationships such as the one with four rural fire departments.

“The jury’s still out on a final decision” on expansion of the city’s general aviation airport, but whatever the city does will be based on study, she said.

“We are not relying on hope to get us through the next four years,” she said, quoting Lee Iacocca’s ambition “to be the best, what else is there?

“We don’t want to be the last best place, we want to be the best place, and I think we’re on the way to getting there.”

Reporter Caleb Soptelean may be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at csoptelean@dailyinterlake.com.