EDITORIAL: Circling back to South Kalispell

As Yogi Berra famously remarked, it’s deja vu all over again.

Perhaps you had that feeling too when you were reading about the study underway to determine the future of South Kalispell. After all, the city has been debating the future of the municipal airport for a good 30 years, and we’ve already heard every possible scenario a dozen times.

But here we go again!

This time the city has contracted with CTA Architects Engineers to analyze the options, gather public input, and then make a recommendation on what should happen with the neighborhood that is the de facto southern entrance to Kalispell.

There have been some new wrinkles. People want more walking paths and a dog park. Those are ideas that probably wouldn’t have surfaced 20 years ago, or even 10.

But when it comes to the big question mark — the future of the city airport — we seem to be no closer to a solution that ever. Or are we?

Some of the options are familiar: Keep the airport the same, using city funding for upkeep. Close the airport and allow development of the prime real estate. Request federal funding that would require bringing the airport into compliance with federal rules.

Other options haven’t really been talked about much.

Combining the airport with the existing Flathead Municipal Airport Authority, which is responsible for Glacier Park International Airport, would probably not solve any of the problems associated with the airport, but at least would force people to look at the airport in a new way.

The same with option five — privatizing the airport — but the city airport is probably a headache no private company would wish upon itself.

Interestingly, a survey conducted by CTA Architects Engineers showed there is no overwhelming interest in shutting down the airport. That option was only favored by 26 percent of respondents. Nearly three-quarters of the people taking the survey were in favor of either keeping the airport open as is, or seeking FAA money to improve the airport.

What that means is we are right back where we started from — in a holding pattern.

We wish CTA Architects Engineers and the city well as they look for a solution that will first satisfy a majority of the City Council, and then pass muster with the public. It’s a complicated problem, but no more so than finding funding for a bypass, and we finally got that one done!