A new city square on Fifth Street? Perhaps

The city of Columbia Falls and developer Mick Ruis are exploring the possibility of creating a city square on Nucleus, albeit a bit smaller one, after Ruis is done developing the former block where First Citizens Bank used to sit.

Ruis is building condominiums, commercial stores, a boutique hotel and a steak house on the block.

The condos are already underway and the hotel and steakhouse will be coming afterwards.

But with the development, gone will be the lawn that used to surround the bank and was the city square. (The city actually owned the block decades ago, according to Hungry Horse News archives, but sold it.)

Now Ruis has suggested he could help create a city square on Fifth Street near the Masonic Temple.

The road would be closed to through traffic and a small park put in its place, which would be roughly the size of a city lot, city manager Susan Nicosia told city council last week. Ruis would pay for the park, she noted.

Council decided to look at the proposal more closely when the city’s park’s committee meets at the end of the month. Nicosia noted that the Ruis development on Nucleus will have parking, both on the property itself and the hotel will have valet parking to lots that are behind the condominiums adjacent to Smith’s Food and Drug.

In other news:

• The city has torn out the tennis courts at Columbus Park and plans on putting pickleball courts there. The Parks committee will also look at the future of Columbus park and meet with neighbors at the end of the month meeting. The committee will meet at 6 p.m. Nov. 29.

• The city has about 75% of a citywide water leak detection completed. Most of the leaks appear to come from service lines that extend to homes, Nicosia noted.