Kalispell City Council backed away from accepting a grant to install traffic calming measures on East Oregon Street after the federal government changed what the funds could be used for.   

“It’s just been a drastic shift in how the grant was originally looked at,” said Development Services Director and interim City Manager Jarod Nygren during the Monday night meeting. 

Kalispell intended to build permanent traffic safety measures on the corridor with money awarded from the Safe Streets For All grant program. But since President Donald Trump took office, the Federal Highway Administration will only allow the money to be used for temporary, removable installations.   

The city originally applied for a $10 million grant in August 2024 to fund improvements on East Oregon Street, Fifth Avenue West and to retime traffic lights downtown so pedestrians have more time to enter the roadway before vehicles are given the green light.  

In November 2024, only $2.4 million was awarded to the city for permanent, quick-build improvements to East Oregon Street.  

Talks with the Federal Highway Administration to finalize a grant agreement began but quickly paused after Trump took office. Once work resumed, the federal government had changed its tune, requiring the money to be used on removable upgrades rather than permanent, concrete ones.  

Given the new condition, city staff and councilors called the move a waste of money. The grant also required a $600,000 local match planned to come from the city’s reserves.   

The grant application did not specify that the traffic safety upgrades had to be “temporary in nature” when the city applied, according to Nygren.  

The temporary structures are meant to test how the traffic safety measures perform on a national scale using East Oregon Street as a model. 

But they would not stand a chance in Montana’s harsh winters, city officials said.  

Public Works Director Susie Turner said the structure bolted to the road would likely be torn up by snowplows and couldn’t be replaced.  

“This sounds like it would be pretty irresponsible for us knowing the winters we have here,” Councilor Sid Daoud said.  

The sentiment was shared by other councilors too. 

“This is just temporary, wasted money,” Councilor Jed Fisher said. 

Nygren said the city could ask the Federal Highway Administration whether the money could instead be used to retime the traffic lights downtown.  

Councilor Ryan Hunter expressed interest in trying to shift the project so the local match could be covered by tax increment finance funds.   

“I don't know that I want to walk away from any funding,” he said.  

The East Oregon Street project was part of the Main Street Safety Action Plan adopted by Council in August 2024. The plan serves as a framework for reducing motor vehicle and pedestrian crashes downtown by 2045.  

Several residents who live on or near the corridor attended Monday’s meeting to express concerns over excessive speeding and the increasing volume of traffic over the years.   

Some wanted to see stop signs or speed bumps installed but vehemently opposed any mini roundabouts, arguing that they would transform the road into a racetrack.  

City staff said concerns about speeding and traffic safety come from across the city and should warrant looking at implementing a citywide traffic-calming policy.    

“East Oregon is an example of a problem that we see throughout the city,” said Deputy Public Works Director Keith Haskins.  

“I think we do need to take the time to develop a really good policy that we can then implement uniformly based off the community and Council’s decisions,” Turner said.  

There is no funding allocated for traffic safety currently, so Council would have to decide where to pull the money from.  

Because City Hall’s agenda is booked for the rest of the year, Nygren said policy talks can start early next year.  

Reporter Jack Underhill can be reached at 758-4407 and [email protected].