Candidate for Columbia Falls City Council Kathryn Price

Kathryn Price is a lifelong resident of Columbia Falls. Price, 52, graduated from Columbia Falls in 1989 and then went on to study business and accounting at Flathead Valley Community College. She started out in business equipment leasing in 1996 and four years later had her own leasing business — Beacon Leasing in 2000, a company she’s run ever since.

In 2003 she started a scrapbook and hobby store and she still runs that as well online at pricelss-scrapbooks.com.

Price is one of 13 children, her father David was a teacher in Columbia Falls and a coach. Price also coached youth sports, including girls softball for years and was a Den Mother for a local Cub Scout troops, even when her kids weren’t in scouts.

She first became interested in City Council when Doug Karper resigned and was one of nine candidates to apply for the position last year.

She noted Columbia Falls is like an extended family that “lifts each other up in the time of need.”

Price knows that firsthand, as she battles terminal cancer and has seen the community support

“All the science says I shouldn’t be here,” she said.

She was given six months to live at one point, and that was more than two years ago.

She and her husband Darin have four grown children — Tori, Jack, Katie and Josh. The first three still live in the area and Josh is in the Marines. Darin is an Air Force veteran and they have one grandson, Max.

She said she supports the resort tax but would like to see Columbia Falls residents exempt from the tax, as they’re already paying property taxes that support city services.

She took Meadow Lake Resort as an example. The resort is outside the city, so it doesn’t pay the tax, but it does get city services. (Meadow Lake pays the city directly for sewer service).

She says she wants the city to see responsible growth and that everyone’s voice needs to be heard. She said she attended some of the hearings when subdivisions were being proposed east of the Flathead River and she was “shocked how (some) council members spoke back to residents.”

She said she opposes city growth east of the Flathead River.

“Natural growth would be to the west,” she said.

On the Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. cleanup, she said she would like to see the waste removed, or it will continue to pollute the groundwater at the site.

As a council member, she said she’d like to help the community market find a permanent home — possibly at the end of Nucleus Avenue as it would draw people downtown.

She’d also like to see the city have some sort of community center and would support efforts to bring that to fruition. (The Boys and Girls Club has plans for a center near the Catholic Church).

She wants the city to keep its unique character.

“We still want that small town feel,” she said.