08-31-18 City Manager ReportCity of Kalispell
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OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER
Information Memorandum
8/31/2018
1. Parks and Recreation
Parks crews have almost completed the new gravity rail
feature at Thompson Memorial Park. Once edging and fall
surfacing are complete and the swing/chair is installed, the
circular zip line will be ready for the public.
Forestry has been working on the trees around Hedges
school. They are raising canopies, pruning, and removing hazard trees prior to the start
of school.
KYAC staff have been working on replacing failed irrigation heads. The sports complex
has an estimated 1,500 sprinkler heads distributed over 138 acres. Field staff have also
been preparing for next season by adding infield mix to Babe Ruth, majors, and minors
pods, as well as adding infield mix and clay to the mounds in order to reshape them.
Later this week, staff will begin painting lines for fall soccer and football.
This past year, we have introduced 16 new recreation programs
and special events that we are planning to offer again in 2019.
Our most attended programs were our family rock climbing
night at Rockfish Climbing Gym with 110 participants and
Shakespeare in the Park with 467 participants.
We have experienced an increase in participation within our existing
recreation and youth programs. Camp Woodland Summer Day Camp
had 4,777 participants, averaging 97.5 kids per day (program capacity is
100 participants per day). Our Skyhawk's Sports Camps also saw a
28% increase in participation this summer due to the fact we added 3
additional weeks of programming.
Recreation Programmer, Tiffany Musgrove has recently joined our Parks and Recreation
team as our new Recreation Programmer. Originally from Kalispell, she has spent the
last 10 years in Texas, California, and Oregon in a variety of programming and
educational positions.
2. Information Services
The City's email accounts have new protection against malware and phishing attempts,
quarantining messages that are identified as such.
IT staff are updating website certificates issued prior to December 1, 2017. On
September 13, 2018, internet browsers like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Apple
Safari will display a security warning on websites saying the site is not secure if the site
uses a certificate issued prior to December 1, 2017. Certificates issued prior to December
1, 2017, will continue to encrypt website data prior to the certificate expiration date but
the site not secure message will be displayed.
City IT staff worked with school IT staff to prepare our School Resource Officecrs
capabilities. In advance of the new school year, computers were updated at FVCC, KMS,
and GHS. IT staff updated software in patrol cars so the remote access continued to be
operational.
3. Fire Department
Since the last update, the Kalispell Fire Department has received 148 calls for service.
As part of the in-service procedures for the new fire pumper, department staff are in the
process of training and testing for The International Fire Service Accreditation Congress
(IFSAC) certification for fire apparatus Driver/Operator. This certification follows
national standards relative to the job performance requirements for Kalispell Fire
Department Engineer. This will be a project that will likely take several months to
complete.
Fire department and building staff recently met with the school district personnel to
review requirements for emergency planning and exiting according to adopted fire code
in regards to active construction operations during the school year. Schools will
implement any necessary changes to the exiting plans during their back to school fire
drills and emergency training scenarios.
4. Public Works
Secondary Digester Project
The secondary digester rehabilitation project is at substantial completion for this
construction season, to date one of the digester lids has been recoated and placed back
inside of the tank and the inside of the TWAS tank has been recoated. The contractor
will return next summer to complete the rehabilitation on the remaining secondary digest
tank.
2
2018 Street and Alley Restoration Projects
A majority of the pavement preservation projects have been completed. Below is a table
summarizing the completed projects and remaining projects anticipated to be completed
this summer or next spring.
Location
Restoration Projects
Completed
East Nevada - 1st Ave East to
Reconstruction
Yes
2nd Ave East
Palmer Drive and West
Mill and Overlay
Yes
Nicklaus
Buffalo Stage Road
Mill and Overlay
Yes
Pheasant Run and Stillwater
Mill and Overlay
Yes
Lane
Husky Street
Mill and Overlay
Yes
8th Street West
Mill and Overlay
Yes
5th Street East
Reconstruct
No
6th Street East
Reconstruct
No
3rd Avenue East North
Mill and overlay
Yes
1st Ave East
Mill and Overlay
Yes
9th Street East
Reconstruction
No
• 6th Alley East - 1300 block
• 7th Alley East 800, 1200, 1300 Block
Alley Paving
Yes-5 blocks
• 8th Alley East 800, 1000 Block
• 8th Alley West - 800, 900, 1000 block
5. Community Development
The Glacier Rail Park project is expected to be at
substantial completion October 2018, roughly three
months ahead of schedule. The Glacier Rail Park Grand
Opening is scheduled for Friday, October 5, 2018.
6. City Clerk/Communications
The City Clerk has been assisting with public outreach for the Kalispell Trail and
Complete Street Project with the Community and Economic Development Department. A
survey was created and has been made available to the public at various community
events to gauge the effectiveness of public outreach efforts for the project and learn how
people prefer to receive news from the city.
The new city Instagram page has reached 539 followers so far and is steadily growing.
Analytics on the city Facebook page list 84,260 people reached during the month of
August with 25,820 post engagements and an increase of 133 followers for a total of
4,695 followers.