The city of Kalispell hosted its second election forum Wednesday night, bringing candidates together to answer questions on local issues.

Kalispell Mayor Mark Johnson fielded questions to County commissioner candidates Pam Holmquist and Eileen Lowery, House District 7 candidates Lynn Stanley and Frank Garner, Senate District 3 candidate Keith Regier and Senate District 6 candidate Albert Olszewski. About 10 people attended the forum.

Johnson led off with questions about what to do with the couplet encircling the county building.

Holmquist cited a traffic study completed earlier this year that produced seven options. She said the new route will likely bring traffic around just one side of the courthouse, but ultimately, she said the Montana Department of Transportation will make the decision.

Lowery urged residents to attend more meetings to be prepared for the changes when they inevitably come.

“I’d like to see more citizen involvement in this big decision,” she said. “For citizens who live on First or Second Avenue West, those might turn into one-way streets.”

With the Kalispell Bypass project nearly complete, Johnson wondered if either commissioner candidates would support renaming the bypass as the official U.S. 93 route.

“That would depend if they do the Willow Glenn (Drive) connection also,” Holmquist said, referencing one of the next possible transportation projects for Kalispell, which could become something of an eastside bypass. “It would really depend on how much of the traffic uses the alternative routes.”

Lowery said she would absolutely support designating the bypass as the new U.S. 93.

When asked about their next priority project once the bypass is in the rear-view mirror, Lowery chose adding more lanes to West Reserve Drive and widening Montana 206.

“That road needs more shoulder space,” she said.

Holmquist also said her biggest priority would be reducing traffic congestion on West Reserve.

Possibly the biggest issue of late for the county, Johnson asked candidates how to alleviate overcrowding at the county jail and fund construction of a new facility.

Holmquist said the county is currently meeting with the organization that built the prison near Shelby. She said the organization typically builds the facility and then offers a lease.

“Whatever happens, I think it will be a minimum three years before we get anything,” she said.

Lowery didn’t have a specific answer for alleviating the overcrowding, but said she would like to see a pawn shop ordinance passed by the county to provide an online database of pawned items that would help tip off police. She would also hire a part-time maintenance worker to help upkeep around the facility.

Johnson asked the candidates about the need for a new judge to help mitigate the growing number of crimes in the county. Holmquist said she’s conflicted on adding a new judge, but said the system at the Clerk of District Court’s office could use a review to see where things may be jamming up. Lowery supported bringing a new judge to Flathead County.

Infrastructure was the lead topic for Senate and House District candidates. Johnson asked candidates what they would do to work with whoever is elected governor to pass a major infrastructure bill. Several candidates said they would support some sort of compromise of bonding and paying for infrastructure needs statewide.

“Every day we delay working on it we get further behind on work that needs to be done,” Stanley said.

Regier said he’s in the early developments of a bill that would divide Montana into four regions, then designate some money from the reserves from the finalized budget to allocate to those regions for infrastructure development.

“Our infrastructure needs are not just in the Bakken or the eastern part of the state,” he said. “They’re all over.”

In light of the state’s recent revenue shortfalls, Johnson asked candidates where they thought the budget could be trimmed to pay for those infrastructure needs.

Olszewski said each state agency should be open for evaluation of budget cuts to look for a little savings.

“It’s a long-term process,” he said. “We should be putting money away and investing in projects that last decades.”

Referring to Missoula’s recent passing of more rigid background checks on all gun sales within city limits, Johnson asked candidates if municipalities should be able to restrict the second amendment within that city.

Garner, former Kalispell Chief of Police and chief of security for Kalispell Regional Healthcare, said municipalities do not have the right to deviate from the Constitution, adding that he believes it would be difficult to travel between Montana cities where gun laws are different. Regier and Olszewski echoed Garner’s sentiment of rights determined by the federal Constitution.

“People should have the right to protect themselves. It’s not just a hunting right,” he said. “I think it would make it difficult for people to travel throughout the state and have different expectations.”

Stanley said she believes citizens should be able to decide what represents public safety to them, through elected officials to make policy where more or less gun control is applied.

Johnson’s next question also stemmed from Missoula’s decision to accept refugees into their community “without the consideration of the impacts on the neighboring communities.”

Olszewski said the decision should follow some communication between the city and state, but ultimately cities should have the right to self-determination. Regier said the decision should be statewide, while Garner said the decision to accept refugees isn’t up to the cities anyway.

“When it comes to these things it’s going to affect us as much as it affects them,” he said. “They’re not going to be allowed to have a different set of standards than us.”

Reporter Seaborn Larson may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at slarson@dailyinterlake.com.