Wide Open Spaces?

There are some things you just don’t do in Missoula.

You don’t drive a Hummer. You don’t wear Bobcat colors at a Griz game. You don’t shoot the deer in the Oval. And you certainly don’t criticize anything related to saving the great outdoors.

Jerry Ballas understands the taboos, but he’s not afraid to break them.

The city councilman and architect for the University of Montana said he will not vote for the $10 million bond on the Nov. 7 ballot to buy more green space for the Garden City.
To some, that statement screams environmental blasphemy, strong enough to warrant being run out town with pitchforks and torches.

But Ballas has his reasons and challenges Missoula residents to think carefully before they go to the polls.

“I just always have this problem: How much pressure do we put on our citizens to pay taxes and what is the priority?” Ballas said.

The bond proposal would raise $10 million over 20 years and cost the average Missoula homeowner about $2 a month for that time period.

Half the money would go toward areas in Missoula and half toward land in the surrounding county.

A few more dollars a month might not sound like much, but some argue money issues in Missoula are becoming a staggering load.

Missoula’s 2007 budget calls for $3.86 million in operation costs for all its parks, recreation areas and open spaces. The cost makes up 10 percent of Missoula’s annual budget, said Brentt Ramharter, Missoula’s finance director.

The budget calls for $243,834 to cover new costs ranging from maintaining the new skate park to creating another dog exercise area.

That’s in addition to the approximately $48.3 million the city owes for costs such as trail maintenance, park facilities upkeep, weed spraying and paying off bonds for the new aquatics center and the 1995 open space bond.

Ramharter said any debt the city owes on parks and recreation does not affect the city’s ability to pay essential things such as police and fire protection and that the city is not struggling to maintain the open space that it already owns.

He said repaying long-term debts is no problem because Missoula residents will pay them with tax dollars already voted upon.

“We tax them whatever it takes to cover the debt,” Ramharter said.

But Ballas is reluctant to increase taxes.

“We need some time to catch up with some of the things we’re already responsible for,” Ballas said.

He estimated the city needs $4 to $5 million alone for weed control.

And, he said, the city will ask for more money in the near future.

“If they vote for this, (Missoula residents) will be asked next year to vote for another $10 million bond for a public safety building,” he said. “I think public safety is much more a priority than open space right now.”

But for some, the need for green hillsides and city parks speaks louder than greenbacks.

Missoula residents Beth Wilbur and Lori Dulemba stroll down the Kim Williams Trail about three times a week and said they support the city purchasing more space like the Clark Fork River trails.

“It couldn’t hurt to have more,” Dulemba said. “We love it. It would be great to have more areas to recreate.”

Both said the green spaces in and around Missoula are reasons why they live here and would not mind an increase in their taxes if it meant more places to walk their dogs.

“The more the merrier,” Wilbur said.

The bond is aimed at acquiring land in the North Hills, South Hills, the Grass Valley area, the Clark Fork River corridor west of Reserve Street and the Grant Creek corridor between Mullan Road and Highway 10. The city also hopes to expand the Kim Williams Trail to Reserve Street and Mullan Road, the Bitterroot Branch Trail near the Southgate Mall and the Milwaukee Railroad Grade trail that currently ends at Russell Street.

“We’re continuing to grow at a rapid pace and need more parks and open spaces to maintain that same quality of life (that we have now),” said Jackie Corday, open space program manager for the city.

Corday said UM students have hiking and biking trails near the university thanks to bonds approved in 1980 and 1995 that bought the Kim Williams Trail area, the majority of Mount Jumbo and almost 1,000 acres on Mount Sentinel.

“The students, as well as thousands of citizens in the town, all get to enjoy those spaces because (of) the foresight of people back in 1995,” Corday said.
But councilman Don Nicholson reminds students that the recreation space come with a price.

Students who rent might believe Missoula tax increases don’t affect them, but Nicholson said think again.

If a landlord is forced to pay more taxes it is a guarantee that he will come up with that money by raising rent costs, Nicholson said.

Some worry that if the bond fails, the character of Missoula as a town nestled in the green Montana hillsides will be compromised.

Ballas disagrees and said strict zoning regulations on the hills will slow development and that $10 million is only a drop in the bucket and in won’t actually purchase much land.

In a state where permanent residents and university students alike come to live under the great blue sky and “get away from it all,” the debate over parks and meadows is paramount. Come November, Missoula residents have a choice to make about their land and their money.

“(Students) come to Missoula because they love the campus, but they also love the city,” Corday said. “They love the (open) spaces adjacent to the city.”

Ballas, too, values a walk among the pine trees and wildflowers. But he also believes financial realities cannot be ignored for the sake of one more patch of grass.

“I’m not convinced, living here all my life, that there’s not a practical need to buy open space,” Ballas said, “But, personally I have a problem (with buying more) when I know I can get in my car and in just five minutes be up in Pattee Canyon and have all the open space I want.”