09/17/08 Griswold/West View Latecomer's AgreementMon I 1 11, i
500 Palmer Drive
Kalispell, MT. 59901
Office (406) 752-5666
Fax (406) 752-5670
September 17, 2008
Mr. Charlie Harball, City Attorney
City of Kalispell
Box 1997
Kalispell, MT. 59903
RE: West View Latecomers Agreement
Dcar Charlie,
The purpose of this letter is to request a meeting with you and the City Manager to
discuss a resolution to the payment of latecomers fees for connection to the water
and sewer extension by the Holiday Express Inn and the Forest Service building. A
brief recap of events leading up to the present which we were involved in or were
informed of are as follows:
1. 8/16/2005. Agreement was signed. This was year one.
2. 11/14/2006. Received check from City for Glacier High School for water and
sewer connection. Included was payment for fire flow.
3. 10/18/2006. Sent Frank Castles a letter regarding the Agreement because the
Forest Service building was being constructed. We pointed out in the letter
that the Agreement said that no connections were to be made before payment
of the Assessment Fees.
4. 8/10/2007. We discovered that the Forest Service building had connected to
water and sewer.
5. 8/25/2007. We met with several members of the Public Works and discussed
our concerns over the administration of the agreement.
6. 9/12/2007. We received an e-mail from the City showing calculated
latecomers fees for the Forest Service building. I responded with a phone call
to Susie Turner and said I did not agree with the assessment, for it did not
include charges for fire flow.
7. 9/27/2007. 1 received more information from Susie Turner regarding
calculated fees. At that point we requested a meeting with the city which was
to include the City Attorney and City Manager.
8. 10/01/2007. We had a meeting with the City. Present were Jim Patrick,
Charlie Harball, Frank Castles. Jim Hanz, Paul Burnham, Mark Owens, and
Lee Griswold, The issue of fire flow was discussed, and when we left the
meeting it was our impression that the City was to get back to us.
9. 10/09/2007. We received a copy of an invoice from Susie Turner for the
Forest Service building. No fire flow was billed.
10. 10/22/2007. 1 sent a letter to the Citv Manaeer asking for clarification as to if
the City intended to follow the fire how deiermination as outlined in the
Agreement. We also requested information regarding service for the Holiday
Inn Express. We never did receive a response.
11. 10/??/2007. A meeting was held to discuss fire flow. Present were Jim
Patrick, Charlie Harball, Jim Hanz, Paul Burnham, Frank Castles, Brian
Solan, Bill Buxton, Andy Miller, Howard Mann and Mark Owens. It was
agreed that the Owl Corp. Latecomers Agreement was interpretated
incorrectly by Public Works, and that the Holiday Inn and the Forest Service
building should have been charged for fire flow as per the example in the
Agreement. There was also discussion in regard to a collection strategy for
collection of these fees from the Holiday Inn and the Forest Service building.
12. 12/04/2007. After phone calls to the Public Words Department we received a
flow determination for the Holiday Inn Express, and also a latecomer fee
calculation which included a charge for fuel flow. Total calculated fee was
$156,287.23 for 2007.
13. 1/03/08. Check was sent to Owl Corporation for $5,224.00 as payment from
the Holiday Inn Express. It should be noted that no money for fire flow was
sent by the Holiday Inn, nor was the payment equal to the amount for the
daily demand calculated by the City.
Since that time, we understand that the City has re -billed or had
communication with both the Holiday Inn Express and the owner of the Forest
Service building. In an effort to bring some clarification on the status, I recently
requested an updated fee calculation from Susie Turner for the year 2008, and a
copy is included. From this calculation it appears that the Holiday Inn Express
currently owes $165,239.77 for water, less the $5,224.00 previously received. The
2008 fees for the Forest Service building is now $123,651.57 for water, and $8,852.45
for sewer, for a total of $132,504.03.
To further complicate the payment of fees with regard to water, we received
several faxes from Susie Turner dated September 16 and 17 regarding potential
usage and fees for the proposed DNRC/DEQ building and the DNRC fire cache. It
appears that now the City is going to attempt to collect the fees owed by the Holiday
Inn Express and the Forest Service building from the developer of these new DNRC
buildings. Is this legal to do this? Susie requested Owl Corporation's approval
before building permits are issued, so it would be prudcnt to clarify this issue as
quickly as possible,
Please keep in mind that the agreement provides for annual fee increases to
take effect the first day of January each year based upon the ten (10) year US
Treasury note rate as of the last day of the immediate preceding November, plus
1.5%. We fully expect the city to honor this part of the agreement, irregardless of
when or the amount the users were initially billed, unless that billing is for the
current year.
We feel that we have been very patient with the city and its administration of
the agreement. However, we also feel that since there has been a lack of progress a
meeting is necessary to clarify how and when reimbursement is to be made. Please
coordinate a time for such a meeting with us at 752-5666.
CC: Jim Patrick, City Manager