MISSOULA — The DeSmet School District had an interesting ask of its voters during the May school elections.
District officials asked voters not to support a bond that would have been used to purchase land to build a rectangular field for the school.
The request came after Missoula County was scheduled to transfer the land in question to the city. Because of this, the city and the school district began discussions on ways they could work together to build the field.
“There’s no real reason for local government to buy land from local government when all we really need to do is think about what’s the best use of all these regardless of who it’s owned by,” explained Missoula Parks and Recreation Director Donna Gaukler.
“City, county, one of the schools — and how do we get the greatest benefit out of it instead of selling land back and forth. Let’s save our money for improvements and for maximizing the benefits of the land for the public," Gaukler said.
Although this is not the first time the city has made an interlocal agreement with a second party, DeSmet School Superintendent Matthew Driessen was appreciative of the city’s willingness to find a solution that would be more beneficial to taxpayers.
“Coming together to say here’s a way for us to continue with the vision but not increase the taxpayer's bill I think is pretty important,” Driessen said. “I think that type of collaboration is the type of government cooperation that the people of Missoula are looking for.”
Gaukler says even with an interlocal agreement between the city and the district the development of the field will still cost taxpayers, but this will be the most efficient way to get it built.
“Land is really expensive in the valley, development is really expensive, so the better in our opinion that we can use those lands the better that we can jointly spend taxpayers dollars and share as many facilities and lands as possible the greater our quality of life is for less money.”
No agreement between the district and city is official yet but one is expected to be made within the next year.
