Survey reveals local support for proposed events center
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POLSON — Appointing an advisory committee looks to be the next step for the Lake County commissioners if they want to move forward on building a multi-purpose events center in the area.
Consultant Billie Lee presented the results of a feasibility study to the commissioners on Thursday, Dec. 8. She worked on the study with Jackola Engineering of Kalispell.
Their report included results from a survey of local businesses, organizations and individuals that was done primarily online. The survey showed that businesses and organizations support such an events center by a tally of 27-8. Individuals support it 68-27.
The top five ideas for an events center include: trade shows/craft shows/ flea markets, 20 percent; community/family/ kids events, 16 percent; sports/recreation events, 14 percent; concerts, 13 percent; and meetings/ conferences/conventions, 11 percent.
“There aren’t any buildings (in Polson) that can hold over 275 people,” Lee said.
The largest in the area is the Joe McDonald Health and Fitness Center at Salish Kootenai College in Pablo. It could be used for some trade shows, she said. The 41,000-square-foot facility has 18,150 square feet that can be used as a “main event” center.
The Ronan Community Center, 300 Third Ave. NW, has 6,000 square feet with 4,600 available for use as a “main event” center.
During public comment, Mauri Morin spoke in favor of building a similar facility in Polson.
“We’ve had a crying need for this kind of a facility for as long as I’ve been here,” said Morin, who is active with the Marine Corps League’s Hellroaring Detachment.
“We use the Red Lion, KwaTaqNuk and the VFW” for Toys for Tots activities, he said.
The feasibility study used a 20,000-squarefoot facility as a starting point for consideration and compared similar- sized facilities in the state.
Such an events center could be built at the Polson Fairgrounds that the county owns. County Commissioner Bill Barron said that, based on an estimate of $100 per square foot, such a facility would cost around $2 million.
The fairgrounds is located next to the Polson Airport and the Flathead River. It is one-way in, one-way out and that could pose a challenge to building an events center there due to possible congestion and parking problems, Lee said.
Other communities in Montana have used oil tax revenue, fairgrounds revenue, grants, bonds and public and private funding to build events centers.
The most relevant ones are in Richland County (Sidney), Flathead County, Ravalli County (Hamilton) and Valley County (Glasgow), Lee said.
She noted that none of the events centers reviewed are entirely self-supporting.
