Kalispell City Council on Monday appeared in favor of applying for a $25 million federal grant to fund the long-planned transformation of Main Street.

Councilors at the April 28 work session expressed both excitement and trepidation over implementing the Main Street Safety Action Plan, which was adopted by the body in August and identified high-risk, high crash intersections and streets in downtown Kalispell. 

Out of 10 roads studied, Council prioritized Main Street, First Avenue East and First Avenue West for upgrades with an estimated cost of $27 million. Changes include reducing Main Street to three lanes of traffic, widening sidewalks and installing pedestrian safety measures. 

Probably the most notable aspect of the plan is the slimming down of Main Street to one lane of traffic headed in either direction — north or south — along with a dedicated left turn lane.  

Also called a road diet, the technique is intended to improve pedestrian safety and reduce crashes, according to the Federal Highway Administration. City planners said there are anticipated increases in travel time, but not by much, and not until years in the future.  

Development Services Director Jarod Nygren said that traffic is projected to be delayed an extra minute and a half by 2045. He said that Kalispell has undergone several road diets in the past 30 years. 

First Avenue East and First Avenue West once boasted four lanes of travel before being shaved down to three “and at that time the world was going to end, and it didn’t,” he said.  

“It won’t be standstill gridlock,” said Rachel Grosso with Kittleson & Associates Inc., the firm hired to create the plan. She said traffic would look like a moving queue from one intersection to the next.   

Main Street currently sees around 18,000 cars a day, with that figure likely spiking in the summer.  

Pedestrian safety measures would also go in on Main Street, First Avenue East and First Avenue West, including flashing beacons, curb extensions and high visibility crosswalks. The improvements aim to promote walkability and storefront activity.  

St. Matthew’s Catholic School would get 12-foot-wide designated parking area along the school’s frontage for pick-ups and drop-offs as well as flashing crosswalks at the nearby intersections.  

Roundabouts would also be built at the intersection of Main Street and 11th Street West and the intersection of Main Street with 13th Street East and Airport Road. 

“This I believe will have a tremendous impact on our Main Street and be such an incredible improvement to enhance businesses and everything,” said Councilor Ryan Hunter.  

He said that the new road design may minimize the reckless driving connected with cruising downtown Kalispell.  

Councilors Chad Graham and Kari Gabriel emphasized that the significant changes may be a hard pill for citizens to swallow.  

“I see this no matter how it happens being painful for people who don’t like change. And we have a lot of them living here,” Gabriel said. “So if we get through it, it’s going to be great. But it’s going to be hard to get through.” 

“This is some radical change to the downtown,” Graham said. “I have mixed feelings on this.”  

Kalispell resident Jamie Quinn called the project “lipstick on a pig but worse,” arguing that Main Street is a well-maintained road, but the lack of businesses prevents people from strolling through town.  

“[Downtown is] not a fun place to be, you got two or three places that people actually want to go to, but they don't want to go into downtown because there’s nothing to go to. Invest in downtown that way,” Quinn said.  

Susanne Wigginton, who lives and works downtown, also objected to the project during public comment. She said that there were not enough crashes to warrant such drastic changes, arguing that issues like blind intersections and a lack of stop signs on certain intersections were more pressing problems.  

A study conducted by Kittleson & Associates Inc. found that between 2018 and 2022, Main Street saw 258 motor vehicle crashes, First Avenue East saw 73 and First Avenue West saw 48. During that same time frame, there were 45 crashes involving cyclists and pedestrians downtown, eight of which occurred on Main Street.   

Bob Vosen, district administrator for the Montana Department of Transportation and a Kalispell resident, was in favor of the project but expressed concern over placing Main Street under construction before finishing the reconfiguration of the southern end of the U.S. 93 Bypass.  

“Right now, we’ve got essentially six lanes going through town. If we take two of those away before we build the replacements, we do have concerns,” Vosen said.  

But time is of the essence to secure funding. Applications for the Safe Streets for All Implementation Grant are due at the end of June, and the pot of money is not expected to come back.  

“This program is not gonna be around much longer,” Nygren said. 

The Safe Streets for All Implementation Grant program historically dolls out $25 million, requiring a 20% match.  

The discretionary grant program was established under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which was signed into law by former President Joe Biden and has since been under attack by President Donald Trump’s administration.  

Council first must sign off on a resolution of intent to apply for the grant following a public hearing. 

Through the same federal program, the city was awarded a $2.4 million grant in November 2024 to improve Oregon Street. But the City is still waiting on a grant agreement with the Federal Highway Administration.  

COUNCIL ALSO debated across-the-board program and park reservation fee increases for Parks and Recreation Department programs.  

The increases are in part due to Kalispell Public School District 5 proposing to charge fees for use of their facilities. 

“That will have a significant cost on some of our programs,” said Parks and Recreation Director Chad Fincher.  

Fincher said a gentleman's agreement has historically been in place where the city and Kalispell Public Schools use each other's facilities for free.  

If adopted, it would mean a roughly 8% to 20% increase in program fees, ranging from the Harry Potter Camp to after-school programs.

“We have to recoup our costs, just like any other business would,” said City Manager Doug Russell.  

The fee increases would also account for rising operational costs, said Fincher. The department has regularly come to Council with proposed fee increases every two to three years. 

Councilors were wary about the risk of making well-used programs inaccessible but saw it as crucial to keep them running.   

“It’s a real asset to the community, these programs that we have,” Hunter said.  

He and Councilor Sid Daoud saw the cost increases as reasonable. 

 “The cost of everything has gone up,” Daoud said.    

Reporter Jack Underhill can be reached at 758-4407 and [email protected].