06-15-18 City Manager ReportCity of Kalispell
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OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER
Information Memorandum
6/15/2018
1. Public Works
Westside Sewer Interceptor (WSI)
Construction of schedule 1 for the Westside Sewer
Interceptor officially started on June 12. The first
schedule connects the new 30 sewer main into an
th
existing manhole at 5 th Ave W and 10 St W, then
progressively heads west and north ending at the
Bypass where an existing casing and pipe were installed
in 2015. Schedules 2, 3, and 4 of the WSI are
anticipated to start construction later this month.
Pavement Maintenance
LHC, Inc. will be performing mill and overlay road
maintenance, for the city, in the following areas beginning June
12 through the first week of July.
• Buffalo Stage Road from Whitefish Stage to Granrud
Lane
• Stillwater Lane from Buffalo Stage Road past the
school through the intersection to Pheasant Run
• Pheasant Run from Stillwater Lane to Buffalo Stage
• Buffalo Square Court beginning
2. Police Department
On June 7, Detective Karen Webster was recognized as Officer of the Year by the
Montana Chiefs of Police Association at their annual convention. Detective Webster was
nominated for her outstanding work investigating crimes against children and sex crimes.
Officer Jason Parce and Cairo are participating in the annual Kids Camp this week on
Flathead Lake. Officer Parce has been a regular at Kids Camp for several years.
On June 12, KPD conducted new officer testing. KPD had 24 applicants begin the
testing process.
Officer Dan Williams is in Spokane this week attending drug interdiction training
program.
On June 4 and 5, Kalispell Police Officers completed the annual Use of Force re -
certifications. Officers received updates on laws, new court cases, as well as continued
training on the taser, handcuffing, and ground procedures.
On May 31, Edgerton Elementary held a special assembly to thank outgoing School
Resource Officer Chad Fetveit.
On May 29 and 30, Officer Jason Parce and Cairo conducted a presentation for home
school students.
3. Fire Department
Since the last update, the Kalispell Fire Department has received 137 calls for service and
has conducted 1 outreach training. Department staff also assisted with a child safety seat
clinic that was held at Station 62 on June 1.
Fire department staff have been conducting new candidate testing and interviews this past
week.
The department is making repairs and doing inventory of the Type 6 Wild Land unit in
order to have it ready for service for grass fire season.
4. Parks Department
Contract forestry pruning work is taking place on the east side of Kalispell. Nearly 300
trees have been pruned through the current contract with another 200 remain. A 124-unit
stump -grinding contract has been completed. Last week, Community Forestry
Consultants were in Kalispell updating 20% of our tree inventory. This data will be used
to put together future pruning contracts.
On June 11, Josh Keene began working as Kalispell's City Arborist. Josh comes to us
from Davey Tree Resource group where he consulted utility companies in California.
Before that, he spent seven years on a tree pruning crew for Asplundh in Pennsylvania.
With the school year ending, the Parks Department has been able to bring on several new
seasonal staff to help with the parks workload. With increased use of city maintained
parks during weekends, we now have staff working through the weekend to help clean
and restock restrooms and empty trashcans from our parks.
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Camp Woodland is officially open. Demand for spots
this summer has been high. We are 99% percent full for
the summer. We have two new supervisors this summer,
Becky Groose and Siane Nash. For field trips this week,
the kids will be visiting Lone Pine State Park and going
bowling at Pick's.
The Woodland Water Park also opened this past week. We had
school groups from Stillwater Christian School on June 5, and
Kalispell Middle School on June 7. We officially opened to the
public on June 9. Unfortunately, we are anticipating low
numbers and/or some closings this first week due to forecasts
of cold temperatures.
5. Building Department
In the last 2 weeks, we have issued permits for 6 single family/duplex and/or townhouse
units. That will bring the total of new single family/duplex and townhouse units for the
year to 33, compared to 46 last year at this time.
The building permits for Edgerton, Hedges, and Russell elementary schools were issued.
The total project valuation is approximately $4.1 million.
Town Pump at 2950 Hwy 93 S (Four Corners) has been issued a permit for the new fuel
island canopy. This project is valued at $175,000.
The department conducted 20 fire life safety inspections of existing businesses and 9
short term rental inspections in May. All of US 93 South has been inspected. The focus
will shift to commercial properties on Airport Road. We have also completed initial
inspections on all the hotels in the city and will be placing them on an annual inspection
schedule.
6. Planning Department
The Planning Board held a work session during the June 12 board meeting to discuss two
items. The draft urban renewal plan which identifies specific redevelopment goals and
projects in the downtown as enumerated in the recently adopted Kalispell Downtown
Plan was reviewed. Staff indicated that they will try to finalize the draft plan for a public
hearing at the planning board in either July or August. The board also discussed the 50
acre PUD called Montana Base Camp proposed by Andrew Matthews of Orlando,
Florida in anticipation of the planning board hearing scheduled for the July 10 board
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meeting. The applicant is proposing a 330-space facility on the Siderius Commons PUD
site situated 1/4 mile west of the US 93 Bypass/US 93 South intersection on the south side
of the Bypass diagonally southwest of the first roundabout. Access would be by the US
93 Bypass on the north and Ashley Meadow Road on the south. The first phase would be
63 spaces and would be served by municipal water and sewer.
7. Community Development
The Kalispell TIGER project trail and
complete street public outreach planning
event was held the week of June 4-8. We
asked for community input on
development of the trail to replace the
current rail line running through
Kalispell. Over 500 people participated
throughout the week, providing feedback
on trail images and riding the rail in speeders to get firsthand knowledge of the area to be
redeveloped. At the end of the week, preliminary design concepts were shared based on
the previous four days' discussions. The City will continue to seek comment on these
concepts through the summer and expect to provide designs in the fall.
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