Looking Back for December 20

A look back at past Pilot articles by Julie Engler

50 Years Ago

December 20, 1973

Lack of available parking space in the downtown business area, particularly for the merchants and their employees came under discussion during the city council meeting. Chamber of Commerce representative, Jim Trout, informed the council of a Chamber study to provide more parking spaces. One area discussed was Central Avenue between Third and Fifth Streets. Trout explained that by removing the divider and replacing it with a double row of diagonal parking places, and eliminating side of the road parking, the area could be used by merchants and employees for daytime parking. 

40 Years Ago

December 22, 1983

Whitefish residents received an early Christmas present when the State Land Board approved the purchase of 7.5 acres on Whitefish Lake for Les Mason Park. All six members of the board voted in favor of the park, which has 500 feet of lakeshore on Gaines Point. Before gaining approval from the land board, the park had been approved by the 1983 State Legislature and the Fish and Game Commission. The state purchased the land for $675,000 and it became the third public park on Whitefish Lake.

30 Years Ago

December 23, 1993

Nearly 10 years after the Mountain Mall was built, mall owners are finally getting around to putting up a stop light on U.S. 93, although it will only be a temporary one, according to Mountain Mall Resident Manager Jeanne Tallman. “We have been working with the city on the temporary light,” said Tallman, who explained the State of Montana had agreed to put in a permanent stop light once U.S. 93 was expanded and improved. The light would probably cost the mall between $25,000 and $35,000, according to Steve Herzon, a maintenance chief with the Montana Department of Transportation in Kalispell. “But it may run higher, depending on what (needs to be) done.”

20 Years Ago

December 18, 2003

A counterfeit $100 bill was used at the Summit House Restaurant at Big Mountain. Police described the bill as of poor quality, most likely generated by a copy machine or from a computer. The fact that the bill was printed on regular paper was a giveaway to its specious monetary value. A group of four to five 12 or 13-year-old juveniles were thought to have watched the cashier for nearly an hour, waiting for an opportunity when the cashier was busy with customers to pass the fake note. The wet and crumpled bill was given to a cashier who was too busy to notice it was a fake.

10 Years Ago

December 18, 2013

Four architectural firms presented their visions for a new Whitefish City Hall as part of a design competition. The committee charged with recommending a firm heard presentations from the competing firms. A new City Hall with a parking structure on the corner of Second Street and Baker Avenue was planned. The project was estimated to cost $11.5 million and tax-increment finance funds were suggested to pay for the building. City manager Chuck Stearns cautioned that the designs were very early concepts and not meant to represent a final design.