Signs of the times

If Kalispell wants to market itself as the most rewarding place to stage a vacation in Northwest Montana, visitors need to be able to find their way around the city to its attractions.

And right now that can be kind of tough to do, according to a "way-finding" study by Cygnet Strategies, a tourism consulting firm in Helena.

"Way-finding is about making it easy for people to find their way around, easy to know what there is to see and do nearby," said Vicky Soderberg, the owner of the company.

"Visitors who know where they are will be calmer, happier and more likely to stop and stay and spend money than people who are lost," she said.

"And that's the goal, economic development and bringing dollars into your community."

Preliminary study findings were presented last week to the Kalispell Business Improvement District, Kalispell Tourism Business Improvement District and the Kalispell Convention and Visitors Bureau.

As part of the roughly $4,000 study, Soderberg said she inventoried potential destinations. She also traveled city streets and followed signs both in a car and on foot to see how easy it was to find them.

STREET signs can be the first and only line of communication to guide visitors to attractions and places such as Kalispell's downtown.

Many of Kalispell's signs are in poor shape and obscure locations, Soderberg found - something locals may not notice because they already know where most things are.

One downtown sign directing people to Conrad Mansion is so faded it leads to questions about whether the mansion still exists. "It doesn't give a good impression or confidence that it's worth following the sign to visit," Soderberg said.

Another sign for the Museum at Central School is back off the road and buried in untrimmed trees. Signs for the Hockaday Museum of Art are equally hard to see.

The flags put up along the street for ThursdayFest are nice but hard to read unless the wind is blowing just right, Soderberg said.

"That's why most communities use banners."

A sign for Lawrence Park and the golf course gives people coming from the south about two seconds to turn or change lanes. There is no sign for people coming from the north, she said.

And a sign for the city airport makes no mention whether it's Kalispell City Airport or Glacier Park International Airport.

"It would be helpful to differentiate between the two," Soderberg said. "If you've missed a flight because you went to the wrong airport, it's going to be Kalispell's fault."

A sign on Idaho Street pointing the way to the "City Center" from the west is faded and hidden behind a utility pole.

Signs welcoming people into the historic downtown from the north are small and hard to see in a potentially bewildering background of dozens of "no parking" and "no left turn" signs, Soderberg said.

"Everything is kind of ‘No, no, no,'" she said of the appearance.

"You guys must have gotten a special on parking signs. You have so many. I've never seen anything like it."

There are at least five different types of parking signs downtown, each with its own restrictions, and a sign for nearly every parking space on the street, Soderberg said. Many are faded.

"Try to get it more consolidated so you don't have as many signs and you can make it easier to understand. If the whole area is ‘No, no, no' and rules and regulations, it doesn't provide a very welcoming environment," Soderberg said.

Finding the library at First Avenue East and Third Street East could be tough for a visitor. It's the only city intersection with no street signs at all, Soderberg found.

Kalispell could improve the appearance of its city gateways, installing welcome signs and landscaping on major entry routes. It also could improve the gateways to downtown, making it a more distinct area and easy to find from anywhere in the city, Soderberg said.

Kiosks at major destinations that draw people to the city, such as Kidsports for one example, could promote other attractions and businesses to encourage visitors to stay longer and spend more money in the city or come back for a second visit.

Signs and kiosks also could be put up at bike-path trailheads.

Those kiosks could have scannable Quality Response codes for people with smart phones to download trail maps or look for nearby restaurants or stores or even a bike repair shop.

"Trailheads for the bike paths would absolutely be a good thing," Soderberg said. "Promoting yourself as a hub at the center of all these great things and helping people get to these activities is crucial to help them recognize you as a destination."

THE way-finding study was funded by a $75,000 Preserve America grant from the National Park Service, leaving it up to the city to determine what, if anything, it wants to do next.

Design costs for new signs, kiosks and gateways could cost anywhere from $35,000 to $60,000, Soderberg said.

Fabrication and installation costs could run up to $735,000. That cost would be driven mostly by the gateways, which can be either simple or complex.

And expensive gateways are not necessarily where the city needs to start, Soderberg said.

"They are a chunk of change and they welcome people to the community, but they don't get them circulating through the community."

Katharine Thompson, community development manager for Kalispell, said the study was a good way to get an outsider's perspective and generate discussion about way-finding issues in the city.

"I think we have an opportunity to digest that information as a group and as a community decide how we want to move forward and what's an appropriate fit," she said.

"We're just at that very beginning stage of having enough information so we can all sort of speak the same language about our way-finding signage and get used to that way-finding term in the first place."

The study's cost estimates are far greater than any funding that's available, Thompson said.

"I think that's why there is a real need for us to step back and look at it to recognize what's going to be realistic for us and how much we want to accomplish and in what kind of time frame."

The way-finding study is just one part of the Preserve America grant, which aims to better market Kalispell's many attractions and central location as a tourism tool to attract more visitors to Glacier National Park.

Another ongoing aim of the grant is to improve the online presence of Kalispell and its attractions to help capture a new generation of younger, web-savvy tourists.

Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.