PORTA on last legs

Metaline Falls to take over Bigfoot Festival

METALINE FALLS — The Pend Oreille Regional Tourism Alliance is still a nonprofit corporation in the eyes of the Washington Secretary of State.

But that might not be the case much longer, according to the only active board member, vice president Melanie Kiss.

“It likely will be dissolved,” Kiss said. PORTA’s president, Kelly Flanagan, was fired from her job as Metaline Town Clerk just days before the Bigfoot Festival last June and later arrested for allegedly spending more than $100,000 of town money improperly. That case has been referred to the FBI, Pend Oreille County Sheriff Glenn Blakeslee said.

PORTA was also short money, Kiss said, about $30,000. She said she reported that to sheriff’s deputies investigating Flanagan.

“It appears that it was spent on (Flannagan’s) personal expenses,” Kiss said.

Kiss said that after Flanagan was fired from the Metaline job, she showed up at the Bigfoot Festival.

“She was there the whole time,” Kiss said. The Bigfoot Festival went fine the year before, Kiss said. But in looking through the books for the June event, she and others discovered discrepancies.

PORTA is a 501(c)(3) corporation. Flanagan had told Kiss that Bookies Accounting was serving as treasurer and that Jennifer Wjick was secretary, but because she never saw Wjick at any meetings, Kiss was unsure if Wjick actually was involved in the organization.

Wjick doesn’t appear on any of the documents with the Secretary of State’s office. Bookies Accounting was also not the treasurer, Kiss said. They were the accounting firm but had never been asked to be the treasurer.

Kiss understood that insurance for the festival had not been purchased, something discovered before the festival took place. She said she thought Metaline Falls covered the liability insurance.

“We trusted Kelly,” Kiss said.

Flanagan’s problems happened just before the festival took place in June.

“My intention was to get through the Bigfoot Festival,” Kiss said. Once that was finished, she intended to resign from the PORTA board. “Then everything blew up and I felt somebody needs to be there.”

PORTA was financed with some county Hotel/ Motel tax money, with a donation from the Kalispel Tribe and a few other sponsorships, Kiss said.

In year’s past, the Bigfoot Festival made enough money to cover its bills and have some to start next year’s festival. This year that wasn’t true.

“We still owe about $10,000 to KXLY,” Kiss said, for advertising. She said the television station has been gracious about the debt.

PORTA’s other expenses were paid, including payments to the presenters for the porta potties, for food for the dinner and to the timing company for the 5K race. PORTA also made a $500 donation to the Boy Scouts for their help with the festival.

PORTA hadn’t filed taxes with the IRS for 2024 and was delinquent, she said, something Bookies Accounting pointed out.

“We didn’t owe anything, they just needed to be filed,” Kiss said. Bookies helped file the taxes.

Flanagan is listed as the registered agent for PORTA in the annual report filed Sept. 3, 2024. Kiss said she was asked by Flanagan to join the PORTA board when Flanagan became board president.

“She built a whole new team,” Kiss said.

With PORTA ready to dissolve, a 10-person ad-hoc Events and Improvement Committee for Metaline Falls met on Monday, Aug. 25, according to a news release from Metaline Falls Mayor Tara Leininger. The committee decided to form a new non-profit committee to continue the Bigfoot Festival, with officers and a board of directors elected.

Leininger and Bill Bisson are co-chairs, Melaine Kiss is secretary and Susie Bisson is treasurer. Sherice McAnerin, Fran Maxwell, Mark Lockwood, Stacy Pelkie and Nancy Kiss will serve on the board. Anyone interested in serving on the committee or as a volunteer is welcome, Leininger said in the news release.

Kiss and Bisson will work to get the rights to the “Metaline Falls Bigfoot Festival” name, then the committee can move ahead with sponsorship and planning for the 2026 Bigfoot Festival, set for June 20–21, according to the news release. There was also time to discuss problems from the past and some exciting new ideas, including an offroad ATV Bigfoot search.