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3/16/2026
Parking Advisory Commission to present its recommendations Tuesday
Inge Buchholz, owner of Inge’s Fashions along Central Avenue and a member of the city’s Parking Advisory Commission, wants to get rid of the touchscreen parking meters downtown, “if it’s the last thing I do.”
She said her patrons sometimes can’t figure out how to use the machines. When they’re stumped, she’ll take a stack of quarters outside and do it herself. She said it’s one example of how Great Falls’ downtown parking system is “failing our customers.”
“I am only concerned about getting the customers back, making it customer-friendly, so they’re happy,” Buchholz said. “This is my livelihood. If they don’t come downtown because of the parking, we don’t get any money.”
Buchholz is at the heart of Great Falls’ parking dilemma. She wants cheap, easy, nearby parking, but her business is surrounded by apartments. With free parking on weekends and holidays, residents sometimes leave their cars outside her store throughout her busiest hours.
And aligning stakeholders’ interests isn’t the only challenge. The city’s parking fund is hemorrhaging money, as MTFP reported, losing $20,000 a month as of December 2025.
The city last week introduced a slew of temporary parking measures, including a $1 to $1.50 per-hour rate increase on Central Avenue. The updates were “intended to maintain consistent enforcement and support short-term stabilization of the parking program while longer-term solutions are developed,” according to a city press release.
Great Falls will get one step closer to the long-term solution Tuesday, when city staff present recommendations at a city commission work session based on feedback from Great Falls Parking Summits, public events for invested parties to share their challenges and aspirations.
“You got 150,000 different opinions,” Buchholz said. “We’re going to get all those opinions and put them in a bucket, and then we’re just going to have to go through them and see what is the best outcome.”
That presentation recommended making the interim changes permanent, implementing additional technology and retaining the current parking contractor. It also said the city should address deferred maintenance and perceived safety issues.
The city commission’s work session begins at 5:30 at the Civic Center. Buchholz said that, even after extensive public discussion, it will be impossible to please everyone.
“It was this way in 1982 when I came here, and it still is a problem,” Buchholz said. “It always will be a problem, but there’s got to be a solution out there that will not be so much of a problem.”
Cost to repair Lincoln Elementary still in the works
The March 8 windstorm that ripped the roof off Lincoln Elementary School, which an administrator described as “almost like opening a tin can,” caused some students to miss school and gave school officials extra homework.
Kindergarteners, as well as first-, second- and third-graders, returned to the intact section of Lincoln Elementary Wednesday. Luke Diekhans, director of business operations for Great Falls Public Schools, said both state and local agencies confirmed the space is safe.
Fourth-graders have been relocated to Lewis and Clark Elementary School, and fifth- and sixth-graders are now attending Paris Gibson Education Center. Diekhans said about 60 people, including firefighters, high-schoolers and employees of Dusty’s Sprinklers, helped clean up after the storm.
Great Falls Public Schools doesn’t yet have details on how long the repairs will take or how much they will cost, but Diekhans said it’s rare for a roof repair to cost less than $1 million. For reference, Lewis and Clark Elementary’s new roof, approved by the school board Feb. 23, cost $1.3 million.
Great Falls firefighter Kate Brewer told MTFP that neither of the recent windstorms injured anyone or caused widespread damage.
“Other than Lincoln Elementary, we were very fortunate,” Brewer said.
During the first windstorm March 8, the department received 35 calls, with a little more than a dozen regarding downed power lines. During the high winds last Thursday, the department received 24 calls; four were related to power lines.
The tough road to a new subdivision
The Cascade County Commission last week delayed making a decision on whether to approve a proposed development of 24 new lots called Bunny Run along the Missouri River southwest of Great Falls.
Several residents of the rural area opposed the new development, arguing that increased traffic would further degrade the few, deteriorated local roads.
“Flood Road and Sunflower Lane have zero shoulders, no sidewalks, extreme curves and multiple blind hills. We have an influx of road bikers, walkers, and runners that have already created hazards,” local resident Alissa Engel wrote to the commission.
Local HOAs maintain the roads leading to the proposed subdivision. Residents like Anne Martinez worried her hypothetical neighbors would use the roads without paying for them. In a written public comment, she said that “it is both logical and fair” that the new subdivision share the maintenance costs.
But city planning staff wrote in their report that they had “no actual documentation” of road ownership, the current condition of the roads or maintenance requirements.
Rachel Julagay, another resident, asked the commission to give HOAs time to submit that evidence. The developers agreed to the delay, Deputy County Attorney Michele Levine said during the meeting.
Julagay said the negotiations between current tenants and developers are important for healthy growth.
“I literally know every single one of our neighbors by name. I know about them and their families. I know their dogs’ names,” Julagay said. “I want to maintain that sense of community. And I think if we have clarity … that everyone is on board with, that will help us to maintain that neighborly atmosphere.”
5 Things to Know in Great Falls
Winco and Chick-fil-A have submitted building permits in Great Falls, according to Planning and Community Development Director Brock Cherry. Chick-fil-A hopes to build a new structure at 711 10th Ave. S.. Winco is looking to renovate a building at 301 Northwest Bypass that was formerly a Shopko. There is no firm timeline for either project, Cherry said.
Montana Renewables received preliminary approval for a 15-year, 50% property tax break, according to a DEQ press release. Montana Renewables will drop a different tax break for “new and expanding industry” in favor of this one.
Gore Hill Interchange will be reduced to one lane Tuesday and Wednesday while the city of Great Falls and the Montana Department of Transportation inspect it, according to a city press release. Flaggers will direct traffic at the intersection of Airport Drive and Tri Frontage Road, and at the intersection of Airport Drive and I-15 Frontage Road.
Great Falls Public Library will host an author talk March 17 with Great Falls novelist Jamie Ford and writer Maya Jewell Zeller, a poet and essayist who writes about the natural world. The event begins at 6:30 p.m.
Several C.M. Russell High School students recently received national accolades. Caimbrie Brost and Kye Wise are National Merit Scholarship finalists. Lydia Comstock won the National Speech & Debate Association’s Academic All-American award, presented to fewer than 1% of the 141,000 participating students.
Programming note
Great Falls This Week will not be published March 23 while our reporter is on vacation. The next edition will publish March 30.
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