A group of short term, tangible projects will be recommended to the Boulder Development Fund Board at the next meeting, set for December 6 at 6:30 p.m. at the city hall.
In a work session held Saturday, November 4, a subcommittee of the BDF board was joined by other interested parties in discussion about implementing expenditure of a $500,000 grant approved by the 2017 Montana Legislature. That fund was intended to aid the community in responding to the closure of the Montana Developmental Center.
As presented to legislators, the $500,000 request contained an allocation of $22,500 for short term, lower price tag, tangible projects. That was the category on which the November 4 discussion centered.
Among projects discussed:
• improvements of the community baseball and softball fields;
• installation of a bicycle motocross course;
• improvements to the city parks;
• the creation of parking areas to provide better accommodation for semis and RVs;
• installation of signs to guide travelers to parking, parks, the fairgrounds, the cemetery and other areas;
• creation of an information center, perhaps on Main Street in with the county event coordinator office;
• upgrading high speed internet service;
• developing and posting a website for the City of Boulder; and
• expanding the fairgrounds.
Other needs also discussed were improved housing and improved lodging for visitors.
The meeting did not identify an order for addressing the projects or costs for most of them.
The work session arose after the full board met November 1 and some speakers suggested figuring out the order in which to tackle the list of goals presented to the legislature.
Drew Dawson, Boulder Transition Advisory Committee chair and city council member-elect, recommended spending a Saturday on which the group works backwards from June 30, 2019, when the grant money needs to be encumbered. He said goals and implementation steps need to be delineated for the various focus areas, or “pathways,” previously identified, such as downtown, the fairgrounds, and the targeted economic development (TED) district.
In addition, he said, “We need some sort of short term goals in order to keep people interested and enthusiastic.”
“We need something that people can see,” said BDF board member Erika Morris. BDF member Connie Grenz said so much was going on and needed to be done, and so much of it is referred to by acronyms, that it is confusing.
“Is that the growth plan? Is that the capital improvements plan? Is that the TED? Is that the CDBG?” she asked, illustrating her point.
“It’s nice to have a problem of a lot of things going on,” said Dawson.
LaDana Hintz, the county planner, recommended the community “catch up on the backlog of your maintenance” to create “something for people to see and want to live near.”
Besides setting up the work group that met November 4, the BDF board agreed to enter into discussion with the county fair board about supporting that group in moving forward with a master plan for the fairgrounds.
