Park bathrooms part of city council goals
Abby Visnouske, foreground and Arianna Smith dance in the Columbia Falls Community Garden at River's Edge Park last week.
Columbia Falls has some pretty nice parks, city council all agreed recently. Now they need some bathrooms.
Bathrooms for the city’s new welcome park on U.S. Highway 2 and at River’s Edge Park were two priorities council discussed at a meeting earlier this month.
Right now, both parks use portable toilets — not an ideal situation since running water is already available at both locations. Finding toilets that will stand up to potential vandalism was one issue.
The Forest Service and the Park Service both use toilets designed to withstand the proverbial wrath of God — but they don’t have running water.
Another priority at the top of the list is to get a sidewalk from Nucleus Avenue down Railroad Street. It’s long been a priority for Mayor Don Barnhart, but the problem is Railroad Street is also a state highway, and simply putting a sidewalk down the side isn’t possible without state approval.
A sidewalk project could cost as much as $400,000 because of the engineering requirements of the state Department of Transportation.
The city doesn’t have enough funding for that, but it might be able to get state assistance.
Another council priority is to pave and repair the alleys in the city’s business district.
Other goals included moving the Chamber of Commerce office off 13th Street East to a downtown location, perhaps at Depot Park, and enforcing laws that require that once a business goes out of business, they take their signs down.