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Kalispell sets up preliminary $78M budget with plans to improve downtown

Posted at 8:29 AM, Jul 16, 2019
and last updated 2019-07-16 10:30:15-04

KALISPELL – The preliminary budget for Kalispell has been set at $78 million with the bulk of the money going toward making downtown more walkable.

City Manager Doug Russell says taxpayers shouldn’t worry since the city structured the budget so taxes will stay in the same bracket it is at currently.

Russell says the Rails to Trails project aims to move all downtown industrial train tracks out of the core area.

The old tracks will go to the east side of Kalispell in what the city calls the Glacier Rail Park.

The hope is to make downtown more walkable with Russell telling MTN News what the new and improved downtown could look like.

“[We’re] looking at removing the trails from the downtown area and replacing that with a linear park, green space, trail throughout the system,” Russell said. Hopefully, it’ll be an inviting place for people to funnel down into the core area of Kalispell.”

Russell says residents could be seeing these upgrades as soon as fall of 2020.