Looking Back: Medians to be added “as traffic grows enough to warrant it”
Most of the Muldown first-grade students, like Jessica Taylor and Patrick Senin, were happy to be at the first day of school in Whitefish in 1984. Early enrollement figures indicated grades one through eight were bursting at the seams as nearly 100 more students were enrolled compared to last year. (Photo by Hugh Conklin)
A look back at past Pilot articles by Julie Engler
50 Years Ago
Sept. 5, 1974
A city ordinance regulating the use of motorcycles on city streets was passed at the regular City Council meeting. The ordinance would go into effect 30 days after the passage. It included the use of lights at all times, the wearing of helmets by all passengers and a requirement that no more than two cycles operate side-by-side in a single lane of traffic. It also stipulated that a cycle must be built for two people in order to carry two, and if the cycle is not built as such, it must have a back or side attachment.
40 Years Ago
Sept. 6, 1984
A proposed downtown shopping center received a boost from the Whitefish City Council when it approved $2,250,000 in Industrial Revenue Bonds for the project. The bonds would finance construction of a 56,000-square-foot shopping center and office complex. Gary Tallman, who represented NT&M Associates, the company behind the project, said he hoped to start construction early next spring. He said a grocery store had already signed a letter of intent to be in the shopping center. The shopping center would be built on the corner of Central Avenue and Railway Street and cover about three acres, Tallman said, with 104 parking spaces.
30 Years Ago
Sept. 1, 1994
The State Highway Commission took a local advisory commission's report to heart and approved a similar design for improving US 93 between Somers and Whitefish. The Montana Highway Commission approved a combination of a divided highway and a five-lane highway, nearly identical to a design developed by the advisory group, according to the state department of transportation. Near Whitefish, the plan called for a four-lane highway with a raised median from Montana 40 to the Whitefish River, though the medians would be added over time as, “traffic grows enough to warrant it,” according to the highway commission.
20 Years Ago
Sept. 2, 2004
In the first developer-led affordable housing project in Whitefish, Brent Card of Gateway Properties announced he would provide four affordable condominium units in his New Riverwalk of Whitefish subdivision. Four, 1,165-square-foot, two-bedroom, two-bath condos would sell for $140,000 apiece, about $40,000 under the starting market price for the units. Construction would begin on the first two eight-plexes in the 72-unit project behind Don K Chevrolet. “It hit me hard when he (Planning Board Chairman Mike Jopek) said not one developer had stepped up to the plate,” Card said. “We're a small family business and we care.”
10 Years Ago
Sept. 3, 2014
A new program began at Whitefish High School that aimed to inspire and assist students on their way to becoming entrepreneurs. The Young Entrepreneurs Academy program took students through the process of starting and launching a real business during the course of a school year. Superintendent Kate Orozco said the YEA! Program would open another door for real life experiences for students.