noun co·nun·drum Our City Commission seems to be faced with a difficult decision, or as Commissioner Bill Bronson says, “it’s a conundrum.” Here’s the issue; to vote for a zone change which would allow a four story motel, approximately 50 feet high, close to the 10th Ave S/Fox Farm intersection, or to vote against it in…
If you skipped last week’s City Commission meeting (like the Great Falls Tribune did), then you missed a real doozy. Unreported by local media, City Commissioner Fred Burow unloaded on the proposed Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding process at the April 18 meeting: “I have a lot of heartburn with this… I think the whole process should…
Many people say the City must do something about too many casinos in this town. The first thing I ask an anti-casino person who drinks alcohol is this: have you ever protested a new bar? No? Oh, so it’s the other guy’s vice you aren’t comfortable with. Because I can make an argument that alcohol…
We know you haven’t heard from us in some time. Some of you wondered (hoped?) if we were simply going to go away. The truth is, we have been in transition. Effective today, founding Editor Kelly Parks has resigned, and Phil Faccenda will be taking her place. “Kelly deserves tremendous credit for getting this project off…
On a Facebook post sharing Phil Faccenda’s excellent piece from yesterday, Angry Reader Dennis Granlie really let us have it. He writes, “You really need to change the name of this blog to “Sore Losers’ Page.” You simply must accept that Rick lost the election and stop trying to litigate it time and time again! When…
“We created an echo chamber,” he admitted, when I asked him to explain the onslaught of freshly minted experts cheerleading for the deal. “They were saying things that validated what we had given them to say.” – Ben Rhodes, former deputy national security advisor to President Barack Obama, in the New York Times Magazine. While…
Great Falls City Commissioner Tracy Houck, a partisan Democrat from Pennyslvania, wrote an amusing letter-to-the-editor, slamming Republican Greg Gianforte for allegedly not representing “Montanan” values. Supporting Rob Quist, Houck writes in today’s Tribune: We have seen him understand our values, our needs and our experiences and turn them into song. While one’s ability to fashion values into…
With the City of Great Falls moving past the financial fiasco of the $5,553,054 bailout (decrease in unassigned General Fund balance) in 2013 to cover the electric power business (see City 2014 CAFR Financial section, p. 14), the City’s financial position has improved, but the needs of the City are still great. The façade of the…
Say what you will about the School Trustees, but a majority of them seem to be very tuned in to public sentiment. Last night, the School Board rejected a $1.2 million elementary levy by a 4-2 vote, with only Bob Moretti and big government liberal Don Ryan dissenting. Ryan is currently up for re-election. As the tide seemed to…
A number of Westside residents received a surprise in their mailboxes this week, in the form of the following 12-page packet. In it, the author takes issue with Tammy Lacey and GFPS for the School District’s construction plans at the Little Russell School site. The District’s operations facility does not conform with county zoning requirements. One…