River's Edge Park should see improvements in coming months
Schellinger Construction broke ground on a new fish pond at River's Edge Park in Columbia Falls last fall. The new pond will see some landscaping soon.
River’s Edge Park in Columbia Falls should see improvements in the coming months. The city has plans to eventually put in a flush toilet bathroom at the popular park, but that won’t likely come until fall.
But other improvements should be seen more immediately. Last week, the city council approved a $10,400 contract with Thompson Contracting to do cleanup and erosion control work near the new fishing pond.
The pond was dug last fall in cooperation with local contractors and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. FWP plans to stock the pond later this spring.
Thompson’s contract will improve the access road to the pond, fix fencing, replace a broken culvert and put down a gravel surface to the pond for accessibility.
In the broader scope, the city council OK’d a contract with the Montana-based design firm, WGM group for $46,185 to complete a master plan for the park.
Under the scope of the work, WGM will looks at funding options, evaluate the floodplain, gauge public input and create landscaping plans for the park. The fish pond will have a grand opening in early summer, though an exact date hasn’t been set, said FWP spokesman Dillon Tabish.
In other news:
- Council OK’d an updated agreement with the ImagineIf Library. The library uses space at city hall at no charge, but recently there have been problems with unruly kids at the library and in the halls, which have disturbed city staff trying to do their jobs. Under the new agreement, the library will take responsibility for controlling kids and if they misbehave, contacting their parents. The library will also obtain liability insurance for the actual library space of $750,000 for each claim and $1.5 million for each occurrence.
- Council went over updates to city codes regarding animals and dogs. The updated code allows for an animal control officer or law enforcement officer to kill a dog that is deemed vicious. If a dog bites a person, the owner of the dog must surrender the dog. A vicious dog is also considered one that doesn’t just bite a person, but which attempts to bite, harass, chase or attempts to bite another animal.
The ordinance also makes it illegal to keep horses, cattle, pigs,goats, hogs or any livestock in the city limits. It also makes it illegal to “beat or otherwise abuse” any animal in the city.