Bigfork asks residents to help shape village's future
A group of independent volunteers gathered about 60 Bigfork residents and organization representatives for a town-hall meeting at Bigfork High School Oct. 13 to begin a community-wide conversation about the village’s future.
According to one of the event’s planning members, Chany Ockert, an invitation went out across the area for anyone tied to Bigfork, to commune and share their hopes and dreams for community development.
The mission for the meeting, Ockert said, was not to start a new group, but to provide a platform for existing groups, businesses and individuals to communicate with each other and voice their opinions, creating a collective vision for the town.
“There are so many organizations that are doing great work in Bigfork. We don’t need another,” Ockert said.
Among those gathered were representatives from the Rotary Club of Bigfork, the Bigfork Chamber of Commerce, the Bigfork Land Use Advisory Committee, the Bigfork Center for the Performing Arts, Community Foundation for a Better Bigfork, Bigfork Fire Department, the ImagineIf Library, several local business owners and others.
“I think it’s a really fantastic opportunity for not only the people of the community but the different groups in the community to come together and talk and work together toward the Bigfork they envision,” Bigfork Chamber of Commerce President Rebekah King said.
The team of volunteers responsible for organizing the event, including Ockert, Karin Henion, Jen Bach, Chuck Shields, Chase Averill and Claude Boiteau, began planning the town-hall meeting toward the end of the summer, but decided to leave any goal-setting for the meeting up to those in attendance.
Community members of all ages responded, bringing their suggestions forward.
Popular topics included children’s activities and services, bike trails, more year-round activities, winter restaurants, after-school programs, improved landscape, signs and sidewalks, more affordable housing and the desire for intercommunication among the various community groups, according to Ockert.
“We don’t have an agenda,” Ockert said. “[We’re] just providing the space for gracious conversation to happen.
“It’s important because we really appreciate the commitments of those who built Bigfork into the place we love, and we want to build on that foundation just to maintain the legacy of a vibrant Bigfork,” she added.
Ockert and her team brought in Tracy Timmons, executive director of the Red Lodge Area Community Foundation, to provide insight as to how community foundations operate in other areas.
Timmons talked about what it means to work in unity for the good of a community and the importance of allowing individuals to be heard and get involved.
A resident of a small, unincorporated town called Roberts, Timmons drew from her experience of living in a small town and being part of the larger community of Red Lodge nearby, which boasts around 300 active volunteers amongits 2,500 residents, Ockert said.
THE NEXT step will be a community survey distributed through the schools, social media, local media, newsletters and the Bigfork Land Use Advisory Committee distribution list.
Through the survey, community members who missed Saturday’s gathering can give their feedback on the same topics posed to those present.
The survey asks residents to provide their dreams for Bigfork, list all the organizations doing good work in order to create a town map and name the top two challenges they believe Bigfork faces.
The survey will end Nov. 2 before a follow-up town meeting from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 3.
At that time, Ockert said, the community will get to decide the next step and whether to continue regular town-hall meetings going forward.
To fill out the survey online, visit https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/bigforktownhall.
Reporter Mary Cloud Taylor can be reached at 758-4459 or mtaylor@dailyinterlake.com.