Airport vote is at hand

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 5, but Kalispell voters could start weighing in on a contentious city airport referendum as early as this week.

The first absentee ballots are getting mailed out on Wednesday, Oct. 16, Election Supervisor Monica Eisenzimer said. Voters can request absentee ballots up until Nov. 4 or turn out to vote on Election Day.

Referendum 103 asks Kalispell residents to vote for or against the repeal of a resolution the Kalispell City Council passed 5-4 in July 2012.

The City Council passed the resolution to accept an airport master plan update prepared by Stelling Engineers and approve a plan to develop the airport to B-II design standards in collaboration with the Federal Aviation Administration and the federal Airport Improvement Program.

If the referendum fails, the City Council’s decision stands and work on that project can proceed.

If the referendum succeeds, voters will repeal the resolution and put an end to an airport project that has been in the works for nearly a decade. That would throw the question of future investment in the city’s general aviation airport back into the lap of the City Council with one less option to consider.

“The ballot is whether or not to repeal an action by the governing body, the resolution to accept the master plan and move forward with that respective alternative,” Kalispell City Manager Doug Russell said. “To repeal that action or to confirm that action, that’s all the vote does.”