COLUMBIA FALLS — The City of Columbia Falls held an open house Wednesday to show the community the beginning stages of the Gateway to Glacier Safety and Mobility Improvement Project.
The project will utilize the $10 million RAISE Grant funds the city was awarded in 2022 to improve multiple sidewalks roads and ADA accessibility in the downtown area.
Columbia Falls Interim City Manager Mark Shrives says these improvements will help with increased tourism throughout the city but its main focus is to help residents have a safer walkable community.
“It's focused in the community. It's not just because of tourism,” Shrives said. So it's down in the residential areas, to try to improve that, we're looking, we go by one of the schools so we're looking to do that to make sure we provide safer entrances and exits for the schools and things like that.”
Shrives continued by saying the city wants feedback from residents to address any concerns they may have about the project.
“This is a lot of money and we can do a lot of things with it and so that’s the important part is we want to do it right,” Shrives said. “That’s why were having these open houses and we’re talking to the community to let them know that here’s what we’re doing we understand that there are some concerns.
Construction on the Gateway to Glacier Safety and Mobility Improvement Project is estimated to begin in October 2025, more information about the project can be found here.
