Plan seeks to set goals for economic future of county

Montana West Economic Development is working to create a set of community goals to help shape the Flathead Valley’s future economic development.

Montana West is reaching out to the communities of the Valley to find out what strengths, weaknesses and trends they are facing, and what they’d like to see accomplished. Input sessions are being offered along with an online survey as a new comprehensive economic development strategy is prepared.

Kim Morisaki, business development director for Montana West, said the input helps create a sort of road map for where her organization should head in the next five years.

“We want to capture a picture of where we are and what’s happening on the ground,” she said. “We take a comprehensive look and summarize the input to establish an action plan.”

Meetings in Whitefish and Columbia Falls drew input on a number of issues. Access to recreation and the proximity to Glacier National Park are listed as strengths in both towns, along with their unique character being a draw.

However, challenges also face both cities. Those include a lack of affordable workforce housing, a shortage of fiber optic connections to draw in high tech industry, a deficiency in the number of manufacturing jobs, and the high cost for flights and shipping into the area.

“Quality of life, education and safety are all seen as strengths,” Morisaki said. “We also don’t want to lose sight of that while we’re growing.”

A convention center for the Valley is also an item that keeps coming up in the “want” column.

“We saw that in 2007 and 2012,” Morisaki said. “People feel we need one, but we just haven’t gotten there.”

Several projects identified during past community planning processes have come to fruition — expanded air service, which came through the creation of the Glacier Airline Enhancement and Retention Outreach (AERO) organization; the construction of the U.S. 93 bypass; the Glacier Rail Park and reconstruction of the Going-to-the-Sun Road.

“It’s an exciting thing to go back and look at what we said was important and then know we tackled that,” Morisaki said.

Through the process MWED will be checking in on some of the issues raised in those previous sessions, to see if areas of concern have improved. For example, folks five years ago said the Flathead County Fairgrounds need to be better utilized and Morisaki said she’s looking to see if changes in management have solved previous concerns.

“We want to see if the things that were important five years ago are still important,” Morisaki said. “Five years ago we were just getting out of a recession and the economic atmosphere was very different.”

MWED is holding public meetings in Evergreen, Lakeside, Bigfork and Kalispell later this month.

An online survey is also available for those wanting to submit input. The survey asks participants to prioritize a number of issues, including workforce development, capital and investments, tourism development, entrepreneurship and business support. The survey is available at www.surveymonkey.com/r/FlatheadCEDS and/or.