Looking Back: Voters approved levy for high school
Whitefish Pilot | UPDATED 1 year, 6 months AGO
Tom Chestut balances himself in his canoe as he keeps an eye out for trash during Chean the Fish. in 1985. The river was one area of the city volunteers cleaned during the annual event. (Hugh Conklin photo)
A look back at past Pilot articles by Julie Engler
50 Years Ago
May 15, 1975
Voters in School District 44 were asked to approve a special one year only levy of 14.9 mills for the high school. In the amount of $105,479 and an 11.6 mil elementary levy in the amount of $123,118 for a total dollar amount of $228,593.00. Commenting on the levy request, School Superintendent Russ Giesy said, “School special levies -- what do they mean to Whitefish schools? It means a level of education that we hope is somewhat comparable to the opportunities offered other students in Montana. When one considers the facts, it is most difficult to conceive.” The figures showed the Whitefish Elementary budget per pupil as ranking 111th out of 121 schools listed.
40 Years Ago
May 16, 1985
The Class A state boys golf title resided in Whitefish for the past three out of four years. The boys team would mount the defense of the state title when they travelled to Fairmont Hot Springs for the Class A tournament. The girls would be trying to improve their third place finish a year ago. In their final warm up before state, golfers hosted their only tournament of the season and the state's largest field turned out to challenge the Whitefish Lake Golf Course and Kalispell's Buffalo Hills Course. Twenty-three teams competed in the two-day tourney and the Whitefish girls took the top spot by defeating the second place Great Falls by 13 strokes.
30 Years Ago
May 11, 1995
The Commission assigned to review Whitefish city government had accomplished almost nothing, but the three members elected to serve pledged to get down to business as soon as they can all meet. The Whitefish Government Review Commission, which was formed in the fall of 1994, had not met formally since commission members Ben Cohen, Dave Sipe and Greg Acton attended a January workshop in Bozeman. All three claimed they had been too busy to meet at the same time on a regular basis.
20 Years Ago
May 12, 2005
County formed a Long-Range Planning Commission and Whitefish started its own planning department with the goal of planning ahead of growth. The goal of the newly formed Whitefish Lake Institute is to provide information on Whitefish Lake and smaller surrounding bodies of water so Whitefish can understand the effects of growth and plan for the future. Whitefish is unique in that it is the largest Montana community that sits so close to a large lake. Mark Polston, director of the Flathead Basin Commission, said, and it is growing so quickly.
10 Years Ago
May 13, 2015
The City of Whitefish released its preliminary budget, which included a 63% increase for the coming fiscal year and was expected to raise property taxes for the first time since 2009. City Manager Chuck Stearns explained the budget in a memorandum sent out to Whitefish City Council members. “The proposed fiscal year 2016 budget was probably the most difficult budget in over five years,” Stearns said in the memo. “Resumption of growth has put additional demands on staff resources and there were many proposals for new staff. Some I could recommend in this budget and some I could not.” The overall budget of $65.9 million is up 25.4 million over last year.