Town folk set priorities for community future

Fishing has always been a good way to relax.

Now it’s a way to raise money.

A fishing trip on the Far West charter boat July 1 will help raise money for the Organizing our Village for the Future, a local effort to chart the course for Bigfork’s future.

The trip was the idea of Doug Averill, owner of Flathead Lake Lodge. Averill brought up the idea last week at the second town hall meeting to discuss ideas on planning for Bigfork’s future.

Tickets to the fundraiser are $100 each and the first person who catches a fish off the Far West will win $5,000. Averill said the event could raise about $10,000 for the community campaign. Only 150 tickets will be sold, and they were going fast at the town hall meeting at Flathead Lake Lodge.

As late-afternoon sunlight played on the water outside the lodge, community members presented their ideas and priorities for Bigfork’s future.

The meeting gelled the priorities into four main areas: expanded Flathead Lake and Swan River access; new family-friendly activities and parks in Bigfork, and downtown parking.

For Averill, this was deju vu all over again.

When he came out of college almost 40 years ago, people like him and Jerry Bygren, president of Flathead Bank of Bigfork, arrived back home. “Forty years ago there was a chamber of commerce, and they had done of bunch of good things, but they were getting tired,” Averill said. “They said ‘why don’t you young guys start something?’”

Now Averill and others the community are asking themselves — and others – what can be done and what needs to be done to move Bigfork forward in tourism marketing and community infrastructure.

The “Organizing a Village for the Future” is an effort to re-energize the community, bring in more volunteers and “see if we can spark an interest,” Averill said.

Renny Johnson, owner of Montana Adventure Sports in Bigfork, briefly described his vision for a “Ring around Bigfork” bike path. This legacy project would create miles of pedestrian and bicycle path around Bigfork, using private and public money. The effort has gotten good traction already with the Bigfork Rotary Club. “It’s just not right that kids have to dodge cars and trucks,” he said.

As for downtown parking, Averill reiterated his idea of purchasing the old Bigfork fire hall and creating a three-level parking garage. Entrance would be off of Grand Avenue, and the top level could be used for community events, like farmers’ markets.

Hilary Shepard, owner of the Mountaineer in Bigfork, described several ideas for more off-season activities in Bigfork “to keep Bigfork going year ‘round,” she said.

Sandy Johnston, owner of Flathead Lake Brewing Company, said Bigfork needs better amenities for families, like parks and playgrounds. “We have the most beautiful place in the valley,” she said.

Paying for these ideas is a challenge, and longtime Bigfork accountant Bob Chrysler told the meeting that there are several ways community members can donate to organizations in their community or get a tax credit through the Montana Community Foundation.

Bigfork Realtor Katie Brown praised the group’s efforts to push Bigfork ahead, and spoke in favor of having a single organization in charge of Bigfork’s community enhancement. “We need to know there’s one group, with one vision,” she said.

David Feffer agreed.

“This is the whole community. It’s not one element,” Feffer said. However, Feffer, founder of the Crown of the Continent Guitar Foundation, said there is freedom for groups and individuals to pursue their own community-enhancing ideas in Bigfork.

He said something that could help pull the community together are weekly events like farmers’ markets. “What are those things that knit us together?” Feffer said.

In addition to the July 1 fishing trip on the Far West, another community meeting will be in the fall.

The townhall meetings grew out of a focus group developed this spring by John Lang and the Bigfork Promotion Group.