Tronstad Development Public Comment from Kelly WilkeAimee Brunckhorst
From: Wilke Enterprises <krw@wilkeent.com>
Sent: Monday, May 20, 2024 12:49 PM
To: Kalispell Meetings Public Comment
Subject: EXTERNAL Tronstad Development
Hello,
I live at 650 Jackson View Trail, off of Whitefish Stage Road approximately 1 X miles south of Tronstad Road.
I know that expansion and development or inevitable but there needs to be forethought put into the expansion and
development without putting the current citizens, that live near the expansion or development, lives at risk or danger.
In my mind before ANY expansion or development are to be done at Tronstad several things the city and/or county need
to have in place.
1) There needs to be a four-way stop light at both US 93/Tronstad AND Whitefish Stage Road/Tronstad
intersections. Without this you are asking for some serious wrecks/fatalities to happen such are happening at
Rose Crossing/Whitefish Stage Road intersection. Right now It is a me first attitude and many that are coming
off of Rose Crossing are acting like it is a four-way stop which it is NOT. This leads into the second point.
2) There needs to be a four-way stop light at the Rose Crossing/Whitefish Stage Road intersection. With the future
development of Reserve Drive, the Rose Crossing use is going to explode exponentially. Right now there are
times during the afternoon rush hour where the traffic is backed on Rose Crossing to the four way stop at the
apartment complex west on Rose Crossing.
3) There needs to be some type of shoulders or expansion of Whitefish Stage Road. Currently there is very little
room on the edge of each side of the road. They are deep ditches. With more traffic and the way that some
people drive there are going to be more accidents that will happen. This fiscal year we have had three major
accidents on Whitefish Stage where a car has taken out a telephone/utility pole. This then entails that both
Whitefish Stage Road and US 93 from Rose Crossing north to just south of Whitefish were without power. Each
time it was over 3 hours in length.
As a fourth generation native of Montana AND Flathead County, I love this valley and state. I know we have to go but
let's not put the cart before the horse like has been done in so many other expansions and developments. The going
joke for as long as I can remember is that developments are put in then the infrastructure is put in place to
accommodate the development AFTER someone ends up dead in some type of fatality that could have been avoided.
In the 1970's and 1980's there used to be a saying around here, "Pray for me, I drive 93". That was until the new US 93
was put in between Whitefish through Polson. The old 93 and the current Whitefish Stage are very similar in that there
are no shoulders for vehicles or pedestrians to walk on, deep ditches on both sides, and many wrecks happen on those
roads. The new saying that I have heard recently, is "Pray for me, I drive Whitefish Stage".
As a side note, where I currently reside, it is on a little knoll and we can see approximately 1 mile of Whitefish
Stage. During the spring, summer, and fall months we can see hot rods, muscle cars, and motorcycles going at lest 70-
80 on Whitefish Stage. As a matter of fact last week we saw that on the north side of the fire hall there was a sheriff
parked there, and a motorcycle went past him going at least 60-70 (speed limit is 45) and the sheriff did
NOTHING. Remember there are NO police officers out this direction so you are asking the sheriff and/or MHP to do
more work.
In conclusion, things need to be rectified in the infrastructure before there is any expansions or developments to the
north of Kalispell. If there isn't there are going to be some sad fatalities on these roads and it could be someone that
you love that is in that vehicle.
Kelly Wilke, MCITP, MCSE, MCNE, CCSP(CCNP ® Security)
Wilke Enterprises, Inc.
"Computers and Networks Done Right the First Time"
krwa-wilkeent.com
(406)890-3928 (cell)
http://www.wilkeent.com