Did you hear the rumors about someone wanting to develop an amusement park on Flathead Lake? I saw the rumors floating around on social media as well, so I reached out to Lake County Commissioner Bill Barron.

No, there are no plans or rules allowing someone to build an amusement park on Flathead Lake (more on that below). But something else that Commissioner Barron told me definitely stood out.

After wrapping up our conversation, I asked him what else was going on in Lake County, which includes Polson and the southern end of Flathead Lake. He told me they have seen a huge increase in population. In just the last 6 months alone, 3,100 people have moved into Lake County. Commissioner Barron says that amounts to a 10% increase in population in 6 months for Lake County alone.

He said it is driving demand for government services, and the local government isn't able to keep pace with the demand:

BARRON: And you have something that's come out of it that's really caught us off guard is titles for new vehicles and used vehicles. We're doing 90 titles a day, and we have people standing in line we have to handle when the courthouse gets full.  We hand out pucks for 20 more people so they can go sit in their car, and when their turn comes they can be paged to come in. We get a lot of frustration and a lot of unhappy people. But it's been pretty stressful on that department, we have gals quitting just because of the stress that they're going under. We get people hired and train them. We've raised wages to try to get people to apply for our positions and I think we're still down like two or three positions right now that we can't fill.

Listen below as Commissioner Barron describes the population growth in Lake County.

And what about the rumors of an amusement park on Flathead Lake? Here's what Commissioner Barron had to say about that:

 

Keep an eye on our Montana Talks podcast for similar content.

 

 

The 100 Best Places to Live in the Midwest

 

More From Montana Talks