06-03-16 City Manager Reportr�TYOF _ City of Kalispell
OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER
MONTANA
Information Memorandum
6/3/2016
1. Planning Department
The planning board will hold a hearing on June 13 to consider a request to allow the
construction of 4 townhouse units on a lot at 1221 - 6th Street West. The lot currently
contains a single family residence which is planned to be demolished. The board will
also hear a request to allow the conversion of a 3 bedroom apartment at East Side Brick
into a two bedroom unit and an efficiency unit. This will require amending the PUD
ordinance to allow a total of 29 residential units instead of the approved 28 units.
2. Building Department
The building department has issued 5 single-family permits, and 2 townhome permits in
the past 2 weeks. This brings the total of residential units for 2016 to 61 compared to 21
units for the same time period in 2015.
On the commercial side, the following projects have been submitted for review: a
$1,205,000 remodel of the Rocky Mountain Heart & Lung Office located at 350 Heritage
Way; a remodel of the 2nd and 3rd Floor Office Tower at the Kalispell Regional Hospital,
valuation to be determined; the 2nd phase of the Immanuel Lutheran Facilities, including
the construction of a new Memory Care Facility, valued at $6,790,000; and the
construction of a new Papa Murphy's Take & Bake Pizza that will replace the existing
Papa Murphy's facility, located at 238 East Center Street, valued at $400,000.
Final inspections have begun for the new Town Pump located at 859 West Reserve
Drive, and the Marriott Spring Hill Suites, located at 2150 Old Reserve Drive in
anticipation of occupancy in the next week.
3. Police Department
The Kalispell Police Department will be conducting our Junior Police Academy June 20
to June 24. The Academy hosts approximately 30 local high school aged kids that apply
to the program. During the 5 days of the academy, students are introduced to the multiple
facets of Law Enforcement, such as: Accident Investigations, Emergency Vehicle
Operations, Physical Fitness, Crime Scene Investigations, Court Room Testimony,
Defensive Tactics, SWAT Activities, etc. The Academy has been a positive opportunity
for youth over the last three years.
On May 23, Max Battle was sworn in as a new officer with the Kalispell Police
Department. Officer Battle is filling the vacant position that was left with the retirement
of Captain Scott Warnell. Officer Battle comes to us from Billings, where he was a
Billing Police Officer for the last six years. Officer Battle immediately began a
condensed Officer Field Training Program because of his prior experience.
The Kalispell Police Department will hold new officer testing on June 8 and 9. A
vacancy will be created when Detective Steve Hoover retires in July. KPD has received
applicants from 50 individuals interested in the position. Candidates will complete
written and physical tests on June 8. An initial round of interviews will be performed on
June 9. Candidates passing all three phases will be considered for the next phase,
background investigations. The process is planned to be concluded on July 20, with final
interviews.
4. Public Works Department
2nd Alley WN Sewer Replacement Proj ect
Construction of the 2nd Alley WN Sewer Replacement Project for
the City of Kalispell will start on May 31, 2016. This project
replaces approximately 1,350 feet of 1930's era 8" clay sewer with
10" PVC gravity sewer main from Montana to California St. The
sewer main replacement will eliminate the current surcharging
created from root intrusion, aged deteriorated pipe, and new
development increased flow. This section of sewer main services a
large sewage flow basin associated with the hospital and NW area
of the city. The project is funded through rates and impact fees.
The project will start on the south end with a casing j ack-and-bore
for the new main under Hwy 2.
Consumer Confidence Report (CCR)
The CCR or Annual Water Quality Report has been completed
for 2015, and notices of the report were advertised in the utility
bill. The CCR is an annual water quality report the City is --
required to provide its customers. This report summarizes _
information regarding sources used, any detected
contaminants, compliance, and educational information. As
reported in the CCR, Kalispell's Public Water Supply met all
of the EPA's drinking water requirements for 2015. A link to
the report can be found on Facebook, Twitter, or the city web site at:
www.kalispell.com/public—works/documents/2015CCR.pdf.
2
5. Fire Department
Since the last update, the Kalispell Fire Department has received 168 calls for service and
has conducted 8 outreach trainings with approximately 170 individuals in attendance.
June 1 marked the deadline for the EMS agencies providing service to Flathead County to
be in compliance with current policies and procedures for the ordering, storing and
tracking of schedule II narcotics, which we use for patient treatments in the field. This
encompasses new standard operating guidelines to be implemented, a review and
adaptation of current procedures, establishing a secure area for storage, and
implementation of the proper documentation to meet the federal requirements. Fire
department staff has met this deadline working in direct coordination with this area's
Drug Enforcement Agency compliance officer.
6. Community Development
The City of Kalispell was awarded a grant of $400,000 from the EPA Brownfields
Program for the purpose of conducting Phase I and/or Phase II environmental site
assessments for private, commercial property owners in Kalispell. Once the grant is
kicked -off in the fall, the City will contract with an environmental professional to
conduct the site assessments at no cost to eligible property owners.
7. Information Services
The router the State of MT provides to the City to connect to the State Network and
Internet was upgraded. The new router supports higher bandwidth speeds that the City
may utilize in the future. The priority of the network connection to the State is the traffic
from the Flathead Emergency Communications Center. City IT staff works directly with
State networking staff to make sure the FECC has the bandwidth it needs.
IT staff pushed out an antivirus program upgrade. City computers are updating at the
downtown buildings first and then IT will update the remote sites. The current antivirus
program continues to get new virus updated files, but the newer version provides support
for newer operating systems, like Windows 10.
The courtroom is experiencing the same AV problem that happened a few months ago.
Court is not in session next week, so the contractor will be able to get in all week to
service the equipment. IT staff will be assisting the contractor and making every effort to
have the equipment working by June 6, when court resumes. The video conference
system works, but the device viewing from the DVD player or document camera is not
able to show to the video conference session.
A new model of semi rugged tablet was loaned on a short demo and used in the field by
the City building inspectors. The demo was the first IT staff have utilized, and provided
a good functionality test in the field by the inspectors. The inspectors were pleased with
the tablet and will be moving away from the semi rugged laptops to semi rugged tablets.
8. Human Resources Department
Human Resources has been reviewing the impact to the latest revisions to Dept. of
Labor's Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) overtime rules in determining exempt and non-
exempt status of employees. The revised overtime rules, which go into effect December
1, 2016, doubles the minimum salary level test for the executive, administrative and
professional exemptions from annual earnings of $23,660 to a minimum of $47,476.
Also complicating the new rule will be future automatic updates to this threshold every
three years, beginning on January 1, 2020.
Human Resources is coordinating Montana Municipal Interlocal Authority's (MMIA)
annual Employee Health Screening Program with the "It Starts With Me" company who
conducts the screening. The dates are now tentatively set for September 15 and 16 in the
Council Chambers and will again reward participants who meet established health and
fitness goals.
9. City Clerk/Communications
The use of videos has been a powerful tool on the city social media pages. The City
Clerk's office is currently editing a video showing repair work inside a manhole
completed and filmed by staff from public works. Pictures transformed into video have
also been popular ways to reach the public. In the past month, city videos on Facebook
have had 12,003 views. The overall reach of our Facebook page for the past month has
been 50,355 people, with post engagement reaching 17,124.
10. Parks and Recreation
This season we have applied an epoxy paint to the
lap pool at the Woodland Water Park for the 2016
season. Our staff continues readying the facility for
opening day, Friday June 10, 2016.
The concessions at the Woodland Park Camp Center have
had some remodeling improvements. Funds utilized were
through The National Parks and Recreation/Walmart
grant. The concession stand now has a new tile floor,
lights, additional heater, miscellaneous electrical
improvements, hand wash sink, commercial fridge,
microwave and cabinets. These improvements will
bolster the summer lunch program in partnership with SD#5.
E
Park crews have added irrigation, graded, top dressed the grading and are planting grass
seed around the Boulder Project. Kalispell Boulder Project is still waiting for the
donation of the kiosk and sign to be completed. Once that is finished, we will have it
installed.
We have had a couple of volunteer groups lending a hand to Parks and Recreation
recently;
• Bigfork Middle School spent a few hours helping clean and organize the camp
center in preparation for Summer Day Camp. They also spent a few hours
picking up trash in Woodland Park.
• Girl Scout troop 9 3974 spent time picking up trash around the skate park.
• Fresh Life Church helped plant our portable garden planters that we built this
year. Day Campers will maintain these portable gardens, and harvest throughout
the summer; learning the benefits of gardens and the foods we grow.
Registration deadline for Reel Fly Women will be on June 3, 2016. The program will run
on June 18, 2016. Instruction will be provided on how to do the basics from roll casting
to mending while learning the fly tying skill. Volunteers from around the Flathead
Valley such as Flathead Women on the Fly, Montana Fly Company and Trout TV will
show their support by coaching through casting and tying skills.
Summer Day Camp registration has been steady with some days already at capacity. We
have some new activities planned this year including onsite gardening.
5