Kalispell City Council subcommittee takes first step into sidewalks and trails funding

Whether to focus on maintaining existing trails and sidewalks or look to future projects was the question before Kalispell City Council’s sidewalk and trails subcommittee during its first meeting Monday.  

The subcommittee, consisting of Councilors Ryan Hunter, Jed Fisher and Chad Graham, convened Oct. 21 in City Hall to discuss priority projects that Council could tackle with a potentially forthcoming sidewalk and trails assessment district.  

Once the councilors identify potential projects, the associated costs and how they would be implemented, their findings will be brought before the full Council, which will develop a plan to put before voters. City Manager Doug Russell estimated the subcommittee would meet three or four more times. 

Drawing from past Council discussion on the topic, Russell identified sidewalk replacement and installation, trails construction and maintenance, Americans with Disabilities Act intersections and traffic control as points of interest. Hunter vied for protected bike lanes as another undertaking to add to the list.  

Hunter said he envisioned the assessment district as an opportunity to pay for a broad array of projects over an extended period that are not otherwise state or federally funded.  

“I don’t personally see a point in limiting us,” Hunter said. “There’s that balance of what’s something that is reasonable that we can go to voters with and what also maximizes what we can fund out of it that is meaningful.”   

Graham saw traffic control, trails and bike lanes as less necessary, suggesting pinpointing areas where the city is falling behind on sidewalk replacement and installation. 

Fisher supported tending to the city’s aging infrastructure before looking for new projects.  

“I want to take care of the old,” Fisher said. “And find a proper way to have safe trails in what we have before we begin moving forward.”  

Kalispell resident Scott Daumiller said during public comment that his family, which has lived in the valley for generations, is getting priced out by property taxes.  

“When I pass away or have to sell it because I can’t pay my property tax anymore, it’s not in our family anymore.”  

Daumiller agreed with Fisher that tending to existing infrastructure should be a priority.  

Reporter Jack Underhill can be reached at junderhill@dailyinterlake.com and 758-4407.