Looking ahead to better times

Building is gaining momentum in Kalispell, and so is a long-overdue economic recovery.

Combined, those two pieces of information, which were reported last week, point to some sunshine poking through the dreary economic clouds of the past few years.

Kalispell last year recorded nearly $55 million in new construction — an increase of $25 million from 2011 and the busiest year for building since 2007.

Although the lion’s share of 2012 building was two projects — the new nursing and health center at Flathead Valley Community College and the surgical services tower at Kalispell Regional Medical Center — the numbers still are a hopeful sign that construction is gaining ground.

Similar improvement trends were noted by economists from the University of Montana at an economic outlook forum last week.

“You can see that definite upward trend in terms of both employment and real earnings here in Flathead County,” said Patrick Barkey of the Bureau of Business and Economic Research.

Fiscal forecasters see slightly accelerating growth in Flathead County as another harbinger of better times.

The UM number-crunchers point out that we’re still not back to the pre-recession boom days of the last decade, but better times apparently are ahead.

This all is good news for people concerned about the future of the Flathead.

Training grant could help

Another potential plus for the local economy is still in the planning stages.

The Kalispell City Council voted Tuesday to move ahead with a grant application that would help Flathead Valley Community College expand its heavy equipment operator training and licensing program.

If the $350,000 grant is awarded from the Community Development Block Grant Program, the money would buy machinery for the training program, including a grader, bulldozer, scraper, mid-size loader and two excavators.

This kind of program at FVCC has proved to be invaluable to the local community. It creates a class of trained individuals who are almost certainly employable because of their specialized skills, thus leading to good-paying jobs and potential future taxpayers.

The City Council has set a March 4 public hearing for the proposal, when they will vote on whether to authorize city staffers to apply for the competitive funding. We hope that Kalispell and FVCC can do what it takes to make this project happen.

Editorials represent the majority opinion of the Daily Inter Lake’s editorial board.