Chamber wants to keep pushing for progress

The Kalispell Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Tuesday concluded with a message: Now is not the time to hit the brakes on development.

Chamber President Joe Unterreiner led a packed house through the success in the Flathead Valley in the last year such as the Kidsports Complex grant, a $10 million rail park infrastructure grant and record tourism numbers in the Flathead Valley.

“But now is not the time to take a victory lap,” Unterreiner said.

According to Unterreiner, Flathead County’s unemployment rate is at 5 percent but the number of people employed is still 2,400 below the figure in 2008.

Last week, Flathead Valley business leaders attended Helena Business Days to review the issues to work on during the upcoming year. Major issues included transportation infrastructure, workforce issues and the looming Clean Power Plan from the Environmental Protection Agency.

At Tuesday’s luncheon, Unterreiner said the Clean Power Plan is expected to cleave 7,000 jobs off Montana’s workforce, including many in Northwest Montana. While Montana Gov. Steve Bullock and Attorney General Tim Fox have led Montana to join 26 other states in a lawsuit against the EPA, the U.S. and state Chambers of Commerce will begin to develop a plan to meet the goals in the Clean Power Plan. Unterreiner said he will work closely with the Montana Chamber to develop a plan that minimizes the impact of the plan in Northwest Montana.

“We’ll work to educate our members about what the plans means for us here in Northwest Montana,” Unterreiner said. “We’ll see what we can do. Our area will be the second-most-affected by the impact of the plan and we’re anxious to see why that is.”

On Feb. 11, economists of the Bureau of Business and Economic Research will give a presentation on the economic outlook deciphering the Clean Power Plan. Director Pat Barkey will describe the reasons why the Flathead Valley would be affected.

Unterreiner said other key points of the Business Days event included transportation infrastructure funding, business equipment tax and workforce development.

There’s plenty to talk about with Kalispell’s recent infrastructure development here, including the U.S. 93 bypass, the Core and Rail Redevelopment plan and the South Kalispell Urban Renewal plan.

Last April, the Legislature failed to pass a $150 million infrastructure bill that would have helped fund building projects around the state. On their Helena trip, Unterreiner and other Flathead business leaders came together to show support for a similar bill in the future.

“There’s a lot of momentum on the infrastructure coming out of 2015 and heading into 2016,” Unterreiner said. “We don’t want to lose any of that momentum so we’ll focus on getting things in the right direction.”

Overall, Unterreiner said a strong bipartisan group of state legislators looked ready to support commerce-favoring legislation. The issue, he said, is that their approaches are often much different, resulting in the political gridlock that caused 2015’s infrastructure bill to fail.

To keep the momentum going this year, the Chamber plans to help city officials update the Kalispell Transportation Plan that is part of the city’s growth policy, Unterreiner said.

In September, the Kalispell Technical Advisory Committee met with state highway officials to consider the next local road project. Although the next project is still in the consideration stage, Willow Glen Drive came out as the favorite that could potentially relieve traffic in downtown Kalispell.

Unterreiner said the Chamber also will work to promote more air travel to the Flathead Valley through Glacier Park International Airport. While the airport will renew direct flight service to Chicago, Unterreiner said the next priority for the Convention and Visitor Bureau will be connecting a direct flight to San Fransisco.

“We need a pro-growth and pro-jobs agenda for ourselves and we intend to work hard at the Chamber,” Unterreiner said. “We’ll continue to advocate for an environment that’s easier to create and grow jobs.”

Reporter Seaborn Larson may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at slarson@dailyinterlake.com.