Nonprofit won't ask city for monument funding
When the sun is high in the sky, the monuments on Nucleus Avenue throw a long shadow, giving a double-vision effect. The Community Foundation is exploring a fix.
Columbia Falls Community Foundation President Mark Johnson said the nonprofit organization isn’t going to ask the city for help in completing the financing of two monuments at the end of Nucleus Avenue.
Former councilman and businessman Dave Petersen floated the idea to city council last week to use tax increment financing funds to bridge the funding gap at a council meeting — and council members balked at the idea.
“It wasn’t our intention to go to the city,” Johnson said.
The foundation initially, and rather quickly, raised $50,000 to put the monuments in earlier this summer, but changes in the design amounted to about $11,000. The Foundation will cover that gap on its own, Johnson said.
The monuments, he noted are part of a greater vision for Nucleus Avenue, which the Foundation is actively raising money toward. It wants to put in attractive street lighting on the road through downtown.
Initially, some of those lights will go up near Glacier Bank, where Johnson is branch manager.
With the street lighting project, Johnson said the Foundation could ask the city for some TIF monies for that project if need be.
TIF monies are intended for beautification and other infrastructure projects in the district. For example, the city recently used TIF money to make intersections on Nucleus Avenue more user friendly, with marked crosswalks and safety lights.
As for Petersen’s request for help with the monuments, Johnson said he appreciated Petersen’s enthusiasm and passion, he also noted that he isn’t on the Foundation’s board.
And for the shadows from the lettering on the monuments, Johnson said there may be other options to dealing that, instead of spending $3,000 to cut the letters down and bring them closer to the face.
Using a light source to backlight the letters could also mitigate the shadows.