City candidates weigh in on parking meters, housing, chickens

Candidates for Great Falls City Commission seats squared off in the first forum since the primary election narrowed the field to two mayoral and four commission candidates.

The candidates generally agreed that top priorities in Great Falls include public safety, infrastructure and community well being through recreation and parks.

Candidates answered prepared questions from event sponsors and questions from the audience for two hours Thursday night in Heritage Hall at Montana State University-Great Falls College.

Running for mayor are incumbent Michael Winters and Bob Kelly, a sitting commissioner. The mayoral term is two years and Winters is running for his fourth term. Kelly has been on the commission for three years, since he was appointed to fill the remainder of a vacant seat.

For two available four-year city commission seats, incumbent Bill Bronson, is running along with Tracy Houck, Don Petrini and Rick Tryon.

Asked whether they thought the "if you build it, they will come" concept applied to providing infrastructure for future development, Petrini said the city needs good infrastructure, but it doesn't guarantee development.

"You can build a lot of things and if the circumstances ain't right, they aren't going to come," he said.

On addressing the shortage of workforce housing, Winters said "we have a slow moving growth and that's really good. We can keep up with it."

Kelly said that officials at Malmstrom Air Force Base have repeatedly said that the housing shortage is an issue for airmen too. Kelly said he supports development when done right and that development might not always happen in areas where some residents want it. Kelly said that if the market drives it, the city can't say "not in my backyard."

An audience member asked if the city needed parking meters downtown and Winters said, "I don't agree with parking meters."

Winters said he would like the city to create a parking commission to handle parking issues, and instead of paying a private company to manage much of the parking system including enforcement, he'd rather hire city employees to do enforcement. On a later question, however, Winters said the city should look at privatizing parking enforcement.

Tryon said, "I would take them out and come up with a better system," but he said he didn't know what a better parking system would be.

Petrini said the meters should be eliminated and downtown business owners would police themselves on parking enforcement. He expressed concern with paying a private company to do parking enforcement, but later said he would support privatizing city services if it was most cost efficient.

Bronson and Kelly both said that some type of parking system is needed downtown, but now is a good opportunity to revisit the current program and make needed changes since Asurion, a large downtown employer, shut down most of its operations at its call center, taking about $10,000 per month out of the parking fund.

Asked whether they support urban chickens, Bronson said the city could revisit the issue, but many neighborhood covenants already prohibit chickens.

Chickens are currently not allowed in most of the city. Houck said her neighbors have chickens and she would support changing the ordinance to allow chickens.

Candidates were asked if they would support a combined community recreation center with an indoor pool to replace the existing rec center and Natatorium.

In May, Park and Recreation Director Joe Petrella told the commission that standalone pools such as the Nat generally have 65-85 percent cost recovery, but the Nat has traditionally recovered only 30-40 percent of costs.

He also told the commission that the Nat is limited in the programming options due to the size of the pool and facility itself. The 1966 building is also beyond it's 40-year life expectancy, meaning higher costs, Petrella said.

"I think we're going to have to look at this very seriously," Bronson said. He said the conversation would likely be part of the process in developing the new Park and Recreation master plan. The commission will vote on a contract to conduct that master plan within the next month.

Houck said the Nat has reached the end of its life and it will cost too much to maintain without offering enough space or resources.

Kelly said the city should look at other successful partnerships for recreational centers in town such as Centene Stadium and Siebel Soccer Park and use them as guides.

Tryon said the tax base would have to expand in order to have funds to build a consolidated facility.

Petrini said that maybe an engineer should look at the facility to see if it can be fixed. The city hired a consultant to detail the needs of the facility and the report was completed in 2011. Some of those recommended repairs have been made.