Priorities take shape in St. Ignatius

ST. IGNATIUS — Members of the St. Ignatius community teamed up with representatives of the Lake County Community Development Corporation (LCCDC) on Thursday, Jan. 26 to brainstorm and examine needs within the town as part of a five-year comprehensive economic development strategy.

Thursday’s meeting, the first of five of its kind that will tour the county, looked at issues relating to transportation, water, drainage and housing – issues brought up by community members themselves.

“It’s important to say that (these issues) came from community members,” Ann Brower, Lake County Commissioner, said.

What the LCCDC hopes to do over the next week is to find out exactly what the priorities are for each town, based on what members of the public feel are vital to the growth and prosperity of their community. After visiting Polson on Tuesday, Jan. 31, the meetings will continue in Ferndale on Thursday, Feb. 2, Ronan on Tuesday, Feb. 7 and Arlee on Thursday, Feb. 9.

“If we get nothing else out of this, we’re creating planning funds to get projects on the drawing board so if money becomes available, we can step forward as a county and say “here, here and here” these are priorities in our community,” Billie Lee, executive director of the LCCDC, said.

After presentations by Luke Walawander, loan portfolio manager for the LCCDC and Karl Sutton, cooperative development coordinator, detailing statistics within Lake County such as its high unemployment rate, high poverty level and problems with farms reporting net losses, the brainstorming began for issues which needed to be addressed in order to allow the town to flourish.

Transportation was one of the main focal points of the discussion, with residents being concerned that many community members don’t have cars and carpooling couldn’t happen. The consensus from the group was that there was a definite need for public transportation as a bus system could help people get from St. Ignatius to jobs throughout Lake County.

The city’s infrastructure was also a key point, with the group believing that the water towers could use work, a new well is needed and the water drainage system needs vast improvement.

While the city’s roads aren’t in great shape, members of the town agreed that the water issues are a pressing need and were one of the higher-priority items.

The town continued, kicking around bike paths and technology upgrades as well during the two-hour session, but by the end of the meeting, felt that they had a grasp on what St. Ignatius needs heading forward.

“Local governments can turn to this when they have a project they want funding for,” Lee said.

“This isn’t about the politics of funding, but rather to gain an understanding of what our citizens believe to be important and ultimately develop that into a prioritized list and make that list available to local, state and federal governments, private or other entities who would fund such projects,” she added.

LCCDC needs your help in finding out more about what the people of Lake County believe are vital and urgent needs in their communities.

They implore individuals to visit www.surveymonkey.com/lakecounty_survey to fill out the survey in an effort to learn more about the people of this area and identify additional problems and potential solutions in the region.