Missoulian - 2006: When Missoula made miracles come true

Annus mirabilis: The year of miracles.

A look back at our community's accomplishments in 2006 puts the lie to the old joke that Missoula is just another word for “no.” This past year, residents of the five valleys sprinkled monuments to goodwill across all points of the compass. We used the ballot box and passed the hat, ran marathons and auctioned paintings, worked the phones and kept the faith.

In deep midwinter, we cut the ribbon on a new footbridge across the Clark Fork River under the Madison Street Bridge. Then we did it again in the upper Rattlesnake Valley, using an innovative design involving small-growth timber to cross Rattlesnake Creek near the boundary of the Rattlesnake National Recreation Area.

Spring was barely a bud when we opened the Ronald McDonald House on Fort Missoula Road. About 3,500 private donors threw down

$2.1 million of the $2.7 million cost. The 11,000-square-foot facility offers a home to out-of-town families whose children are undergoing medical care here. Just nine months later, organizers symbolically burned the mortgage to celebrate the final $25,000 payment on the house.

In May, the Missoulian reported “Dozens of Missoula children were attacked by a giant pelican Wednesday. No one was injured.” The summer of the splash decks had begun. Despite the still-chilly weather, children flocked to the new water playgrounds at Franklin, Marilyn, Bonner and Westside parks. That's partly because they had cool things such as pelicans that dropped cascades of water on squealing kids, and partly because that water was heated to 80 degrees. The splash decks replaced beloved but bedeviled turtle ponds that were getting tough to maintain and clean.

And then, the big one hit. Splash Montana opened its slides and lazy river to the boys and girls of summer. In 76 days of operation, the waterpark soaked 130,224 visitors. The splash decks and Splash Montana (and one more accomplishment that we'll get to in a minute) came from a publicly approved aquatics bond worth $8.1 million. Without it, Missoula's Spartan and McCormick pools would have soon sunk of their own obsolescence.

For those who preferred their water chilled, Brennan's Wave officially rocked the kayak world at the end of June. A strategically placed stack of boulders, the Wave creates three permanent whitewater curls in the Clark Fork River alongside Caras Park. Diehard water fiends were testing the design in February, and continued to dodge ice floes and migrating ducks in December.

The project memorialized Missoula native son Brennan Guth, a world-class kayaker whose death on a river in Chile inspired his friends and admirers to raise more than $300,000 in cash and donations to get it built.

Somewhat less fanfare accompanied construction of bridges at Cottonwood Street by McCormick Park and Ninth Street by Franklin Park. A new eight-acre park was platted at Maloney Ranch, and a two-thirds-of-a-mile trail linked Wapikiya Park to Meadow Hill Middle School. Greenough Park got its trails resurfaced with new asphalt, making it one of the smoothest and longest creek corridor biking routes in the nation.

A true sign of civilization is indoor plumbing. And Missoula even scored on that front in 2006, adding or improving toilets at Fort Missoula, the Rattlesnake athletic fields and the Mobash Skatepark. Restroom renovations also took place at Southside Lions Park and Playfair Park.

Then came fall, and the grand opening of the Missoula Art Museum's new wing. The

$4.25 million project depended on art lovers from throughout the region, along with a fair amount of luck. The aging Carnegie Library building, home to the MAM since 1975, nearly didn't survive the requisite excavation around its foundations. But old and new came through, and have been entertaining visitors throughout the fall and early winter.

On the other side of downtown, and in an alternate reality where gravity appears dodgy, if not illegal, the Missoula Skatepark Association rolled out its dream. Popularly known as “Mobash,” the concrete jungle gym has drawn skateboarders from across the nation. It cost $650,000, much of which was raised a buck at a time to activate some generous matching grants. If you haven't checked out its adherents yet, prepare to be amazed.

And to get cleaned up and soak the bones after a radical ride, there's the Currents indoor water park that opened in September in McCormick Park. When Splash Montana goes dormant for the winter, Currents keeps the water flowing through its slides, games and zero-depth entry kiddie pool.

If all that wasn't enough, Missoula residents went to the ballot box Nov. 7 and voted for a new open space bond to raise $10 million over 20 years. The money will buy new recreation lands throughout Missoula County. On a more local level, Rattlesnake residents OK'd a special taxing district to rebuild their Pineview Park.

There are any number of reasons why all these things happened this year, and not last year or next year. The Missoula Redevelopment Agency had a spending deadline to hit for downtown-area projects, and contributed large or small bits that accelerated many efforts. Ronald McDonald House was seven years in the making, and just happened to get finished in 2006. The aquatics bond was passed in 2003, but it took this long to design and construct the pools and splash decks.

Still, former Missoula Mayor Dan Kemmis suggests the credit really lies with each one of us.

“Missoula is engaging more of its citizens in making good things happen,” Kemmis said. “More young people have been actively involved than I've ever seen before. There is outstanding generosity that goes into many of these projects, not just dollar terms, but in terms of people who don't have very much money digging deeper than they might afford.

“What really impressed me with so many of those projects was the perseverance and commitment and passion of the people who cared most about the projects.

“I was especially impressed with the way the skateboarders and kayakers kept after their projects and kept coming up with new ways of raising money. Every once in awhile, I hear people talking about how all Missoula knows is how to say ‘no.' I just don't think that's true.”

Indeed, just one question remains as the year of miracles comes to a close.

What next?

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