Never too late to make the right decision

Carol and I have lived in and loved Whitefish for 30 years. I’ve been actively involved in fundraising and philanthropy, most visibly as Old Man Walking for the Whitefish Performing Arts Center and more recently as Older Man Walking for the Whitefish High School greenhouse.

I’m pushing this initiative because it’s important for Whitefish residents to have a say on a project of this permanence and significance.

The mayor and others have argued that it’s too late to change course on the proposed City Hall. I respectfully disagree. Putting a City Hall building on the most visible and expensive corner of Whitefish will add little or no value to our downtown economy.

I’m a longtime travel expert and can promise that building a similarly designed City Hall outside the downtown business district will open a large area for new shops, restaurants and retail — bringing with them the kind of vitality, jobs and tax revenue that truly benefits tourism supported communities like ours.

It’s also financially irresponsible to spend $15 million when we can build the same great City Hall elsewhere in Whitefish for a fraction of the cost. The mayor and City Council claim that our “property taxes won’t go up” as a result. But taxes are taxes.

The $15 million spent on City Hall, minus the millions in lost property tax revenue from building in a less pricey location, means millions less for other deserving projects. While we’re paying for an extravagant City Hall on the most valuable piece of real estate in downtown Whitefish, we’ll need budget increases to fund other needs, like snowplowing.

I hope you will join me in this effort. If the City Council is confident that it has the backing of Whitefish’s residents, then they should embrace this public vote, just as they did with Haskill Basin, which passed overwhelmingly.

This one’s pretty straightforward: Should Whitefish voters be allowed to vote on this extravagant city hall project? Remember, it’s never too late to make the right decision.

— Rich Atkinson, Whitefish