FWP pitches in $70,000 toward fishing pier

The City of Columbia Falls has received a matching grant from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks to put a fishing pier at the city’s fish pond at River’s Edge Park.

The city budgeted a little more than $140,000 for the pier so the FWP grant, through the William Kamps Fund, will cut the cost to the city almost in half.

The pond was a joint effort between FWP, the Flathead Land Trust, the city and donors back in 2018.

Schellinger Construction of Columbia Falls donated the excavator work to dig the 1.5 acre pond in the fall of ‘18 and it was stocked by FWP and opened to the public in the spring of 2019.

The pier, along with other rock fishing stands will make the popular pond wheelchair accessible. Dream Adaptive already uses the park quite a bit in the summertime to take clients on bike rides in the park. The nonprofit serves disabled people in the valley.

Originally, the city of Columbia Falls and the Flathead Land Trust received a $100,000 grant in 2017 from the LOR Foundation to work collaboratively on the pond and a trail project in the city.

In addition, FWP committed funded part of the original project through the Bill Kamps Memorial Fund. William “Bill” Kamps enjoyed sharing his knowledge and love of the outdoors with the community, especially kids. Kamps passed away in 2011 and through his estate he created a fund to benefit FWP’s Region 1 Hooked on Fishing and other programs.

Work on the pier and fishing stands should begin this spring and it will go out to bid this month, city manager Eric Hanks said in a report to council.

The city’s resort tax paid for its share of the project.