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Clark Fork sees busy year in 2020

by RUSS SCHENCK Contributing Writer
| March 31, 2021 1:00 AM

The city of Clark Fork has had a busy year. Over the last year, the city received a substantial grant for fiber internet within the city limits delivering more reliable internet to all of its residents. The construction was completed in early December 2020 by Kaniksu LLC. We are look forward to the faster and more reliable internet.

Maintaining and upgrading infrastructure seems to always be an uphill battle for smaller communities like Clark Fork. Thanks to help from a grant from Innovia Foundation, we were able to install street lights on the Lightning Creek Bridge to increase visibility at night and improve the aesthetics coming into Clark Fork. The city’s excellent maintenance crew has worked hard replacing all of the outdated register tops for the residents’ water meters and also was able to install our new bleachers just in time for our Fourth of July celebration held at Veteran’s Memorial Park.

The city is still working on trying to chip seal all of the roads on the south side of Fourth Avenue, but may need to break the project up into sections in order to get it completed by the end of next year. The city is currently waiting on the final approval of our water facilities Plan in order to move forward with grants and funding opportunities so we can improve water services for residents.

Like all cities big and small, economic development is essential for continued growth and prosperity; in the city, we have seen businesses come and go over the years. Fortunately, the business growth is trending upward which is essential and we are lucky to have good businesses that continue to provide that small hometown feel.

With the current real estate market on a high, we are seeing more properties changing hands and the city is looking forward to more businesses opening with the new property owner changes. Also, we are eagerly anticipating the completion of a new subdivision that may bring in more businesses and new residential properties.

As for upcoming projects, we believe there is much more to a community than its visual appearance. However, the appearance of a town reflects a great deal about the community and the people who live in it. This is why the city has decided to re-institute its community beautification project to polish this “diamond in the rough” and make people proud of where they live and what they have. We encourage all community members and businesses to join in on the revitalizing of our small community.

Russ Schenck is mayor of the city of Clark Fork.