Loading...
06-30-23 City Manager Report1 City of Kalispell OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER Information Memorandum 6/30/2023 1.Public Works Permitting The Public Works Department offers electronic permitting applications through the public portal at Permits | Kalispell, MT. Applicants can start the application process for Stormwater Permits, Right-of-Way Permits, Parklet, Oversized/Overweight Load, and Encroachment permits by accessing the permitting page on the city’s website. Thus far in 2023, the Public Works Department received 120 submittals for right-of-way permits and 86 submittals for stormwater construction permits. Right-of-way permits are required for any work within the right-of-way and can include driveways, sidewalk, and utility work. Right-of-way permits are required on most residential construction as well as commercial construction. Construction stormwater permits are required on any project disturbing more than 1,000 square feet or 5 cubic yards. This permit is also issued for most residential or commercial projects. Neither one of these permits would be issued on a remodel or tenant improvement that is completely interior to an existing structure. Stormwater maintenance permits are required for all post-construction stormwater management facilities. The permit is issued in 5 year terms and involves annual inspections, maintenance, and reporting requirements. The stormwater maintenance permit program supports compliance practices required by the City’s MS4 Permit. 2 Water System SCADA Updates Recently the Water Department staff have completed the following SCADA updates to improve the reliability and functionality of the water operations: •Grandview Well variable frequency drive (VFD), chlorine dosage speed feedback inputs, and operator interface terminal upgrade. This task upgraded SCADA programming to allow operators to make remote speed command changes to the Grandview #1 Well. This allows operators the ability to increase or decrease production rates from the well based on seasonal demands. Prior to this task order, staff would have to be onsite to make any changes to speed control. •Westview Well Speed Feedback. These changes allow operators the same functionality as Grandview #1 Well. •Buffalo Hill Operator Interface Terminal (OIT) Programming. This task involved reprogramming of the Buffalo Hill Operator Interface Terminal to allow operators to view and make changes to all water system sites from the Buffalo Hill Operator Interface Terminal. Prior to this upgrade, staff could only view and make changes to the water system from the desktop computer at Buffalo Hill. This task upgrade allows operators the redundancy to operate the water system from one central location in the event of a desktop or remote access failure. •Wonderware Upgrade to the Buffalo Hill Desktop computer. Wonderware is the software used to display water system configurations to the operators. The software application runs continuously on the Buffalo Hill desktop computer. City staff located the original license information and worked with the distributor of the software application to re-install a corrected license which allows the City a limit of 60,000 input tags which will be sufficient for the upcoming additions of the 3 new wells and water tank. 2.Planning Department The Kalispell City Planning Board will hold a public hearing at their July 11 meeting and take public comments on the agenda items listed below: 1.File #KCU-23-03 – A request from Casa Mexico Holdings, LLC, for a conditional use permit for the construction of a parking lot at 1741 Airport Road to be associated with the Casa Mexico restaurant. The parking lot, which will primarily front 18th Street East, will have approximately 78 parking spaces, primarily to serve the expansion of the existing restaurant into a portion of the building to the south to provide an expanded kitchen and event area. The use as a parking lot is generally a permitted use under the zoning ordinance, but is listed as a conditional use through the Airport Affected Area Ordinance due to its location in the Runway Protection Zone. 2.File #KPP-23-05 - A request from KLDS Investments, LLC, for major subdivision approval of Pioneer Estates, a 22-lot residential subdivision located in 3 an R-4 (Residential) zone. The subdivision contains 6.39 acres in lots, roads and a utility lot. The property is generally located on the south side of Two Mile Drive, west of Greenbriar, and to the east of the Highway 93 Bypass. Documents pertaining to the agenda items are on file for public inspection at the Kalispell Planning Department, 201 First Avenue East, Kalispell, MT 59901, and are available for public review during regular office hours. In addition, information on the agenda items are posted on our website at https://mt-kalispell.civicplus.com/314/Planning-Board under planning board “upcoming agenda.” 3.Building Department In the last 2 weeks, we have issued permits for 3 single-family homes. This brings the total of new single-family/duplex and townhouse units for the year to 36, compared to 101 last year at this time. There have been 155 multi-family housing units issued so far this year. Last year at this time, we had issued 421 multi-family housing units. There were a total of 188 combined building and/or fire inspections completed in the last 2 weeks. Residential – 32 Plumbing – 11 Commercial – 37 Mechanical - 12 Electrical – 10 Fire – 86 4.Community Development The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC) has awarded $125,000 to the Morning Start Court Water and Wastewater Improvement Project through the Renewable Resource Grant and Loan Program (RRGL). This funding will be paired with other recent $750,000.00 funding awarded to address water and sewer connection needs for the Morning Star Community in Kalispell. Environmental site investigation work including the use of ground penetrating radar (GPR) was conducted on June 28 at the city owned 3rd & Main (former Valley Bank) and Eagles parking lots. These properties are to be transferred in ownership for the construction of the Charles Hotel (at 3rd & Main) and the parking garage (Eagles lot). The work is part of the due diligence process in advance of ownership transfer and is funded by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) under its Targeted Brownfields Program (TBA). TBA resources for environmental site assessment may be accessed through the City of Kalispell, Community Development office. As part of the Safe Streets for All Grant, staff has assembled a stakeholder group that will act as a sounding board for the project. The intent is that the group will operate similarly to the “Trail Crew” that was utilized as part of the Kalispell Parkline Trail. The group 4 will include members of the Planning Board, Montana Department of Transportation, Urban Renewal Agency, School District 5, Business Improvement District, Kalispell Chamber of Commerce, Kalispell Technical Advisory Committee and City staff. Initial efforts will include development of the Request for Proposals that would be utilized to select a qualified consultant. 5.Fire Department From the period of June 14 to June 27, the Fire Department had 160 responses. Of these, there were 125 medical incidents, 2 Structure fires, 2 Motor vehicle accident with injuries, 3 Fire alarm activations-smoke scares, 7 public assists/invalid, 1 Haz-Mat incident, 1 vehicle fire, 1 grass fire, 4 unauthorized burning complaints, 2 Power lines down, and 15 dispatched and canceled enroute. The department has been working on updating Haz-Mat response guides. The concrete apron was replaced in front of the downtown station. KFD had a large mini storage building fire at Meridian Mini Storage. The fire had been burning inside the building for some time before it was noticed and 911 was called. Kalispell was assisted by Whitefish, Evergreen, Smith Valley, South Kalispell, and Creston Fire Departments. The Fire Chief taught the annual Bloodborne Pathogen training to City Parks Staff. Crews have been doing walk-throughs with maintenance staff for facility familiarity at the Immanuel Lutheran Home. Crews have been demoing new software for incident reporting for efficiency and capturing more customized data for our organization. 6.Police Department Officer Abigail Inabnit graduates from the Law Enforcement Academy on June 30. Investigations Captain Ryan Bartholomew attended the annual MACOP conference in Billings. The annual convention was focused on reviewing changes from the recent legislative session. Canine Officer Vukonich is in his third week of a month-long canine training. Captain Venezio completed the 10-week National Police Academy. We held testing for new hires on June 27. Ten applicants showed up for the testing and 5 were able to complete the written and physical testing and will move forward in the hiring process. 5 Year to date calls for service for patrol stands at 18,987, compared to 17,809 in 2022, and 16,773 in 2021. Year to date for detective felony cases stands at 312, compared to 341 in 2022, and 266 in 2021. 7.Parks and Recreation Members from the Daybreak Rotary Club have recently replaced the roof on the shelter in the back of Lawrence Park as a volunteer project. The roofing materials had failed and needed to be rebuilt. Park staff have been working with Public Works to mitigate irrigation usage this summer in parks to help with Kalispell’s water supply. Parks will initially see a 25% reduction in water usage and as water restrictions increase, will go to a 50% reduction. Our Forestry staff has begun pruning boulevard trees along 6th Street West. Our staff at the Kalispell Youth Athletic Complex are preparing the facility for the Firecracker baseball tournament that begins July 1. 7v7 Adult Soccer has begun at the Kalispell Middle School fields. There are 12 teams in the league who play on Mondays and Thursdays from 6-9pm. Session 1 of Sports Camp is taking place this week at Thompson Memorial Park from 9am-12:30pm. Registration deadline for Session 2 of Sports Camp is July 7 at 5pm. Registration deadline has passed for the 3v3 Basketball league at Thompson Memorial Park. The league is set to begin on July 5 from 5-9:30pm We are in the full swing of our Camp Woodland summer program. We have a few spots open, but the days are very limited. Our specialty summer camps are approaching. We have plenty of room in Zombie Survival Camp and Harry Potter Camp. Woodland Water Park is open, and we have just completed our first session of swim lessons. Swim lessons take place Monday through Thursday with each session lasting 2 weeks. Lessons take place in the mornings from 9:45am – 11:40am and in the evenings from 4:20pm-6:15pm. There are 5 sessions of swim lessons total. Woodland Water Park is open to the public on Monday through Saturday from 12:00pm-4:00pm with evening swims on Mondays and Wednesdays from 6:30pm-8:30pm. 6 Picnic in the Park kicked off on Tuesday, June 27 with the Tommy Edwards Band. There are 12 total concerts planned for the Picnic in the Park Concert series which takes place every Tuesday evening from 6:00-8:00pm through August 18th and each Wednesday in July from 11:30am-1:30pm.