06-14-19 City Manager Report1
City of Kalispell
OFFICE OF THE CITY
MANAGER
Information Memorandum
6/14/2019
1. Police Department
Officer Jason Parce is participating in Kid’s Camp with Flathead Care at Big Sky Bible
Camp.
Detective Sgt. Ryan Bartholomew attended child forensic interview training in Helena
June 10-14.
Officer Cory Clarke attended Missing Person’s training in Helena on June 11 and 12.
Topics included: AMBER Alerts in Indian Country; how, when, and where to file a
missing person’s report, resources available to the public and law enforcement, nexus of
human trafficking and missing persons and runaways, victim awareness and support.
Sgt. Venezio participated in the Montana Police Protective Association Conference in
Helena June 4-7. Training topics included information on training, recruitment and
retention of officers.
All officers in the Kalispell Police Department participated in the annual use of force
recertification on June 3 and 4.
2. City Clerk/Communications
The City Clerk and Communications Manager attended the 2019 Regional Municipal
Summit held in Columbia Falls June 4, 2019. The agenda included a state legislature
summary, a session on understanding municipal liability, an informative talk on public
information requests, and a session on child abuse prevention for municipal operations.
The summit also provided an opportunity for area municipalities to discuss common
issues.
Videos for social media have been created recently to highlight the Public Works
Department for National Public Works Week, training that was conducted by the
Kalispell Fire Department’s Hazmat Team, a Kalispell Fire outreach event with 7th & 8th
grade girls in the STEM program, and a video about forensic students at Flathead High
School learning from the Major Crime Unit.
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3.Parks Department
On June 1, the Flathead Marines volunteered and removed
the large Woodland Park playground making way for the
installation of the new playground. Park Crews have begun
installation of the new smaller 2-5 year old playground that
will now be situated closest to the bathrooms. A concrete
contractor will also begin installation of a perimeter
sidewalk with access points to each of the new
playgrounds. The 5-12 year old playground will be
installed to the east of the pavilion after the smaller playground is finished.
Woodland Water Park had two school groups visit the pool in early June for their end of
the year celebrations. Stillwater Christian School visited the pool on June 4 bringing 134
students from grades K-8. The Kalispell Middle School also held their 7th grade end of
the year celebration at the pool on June 6 with 280 kids in attendance. Although weather
wasn’t ideal for the KMS group, the participants still had a great time. Woodland Water
Park officially opened for the season on June 8.
We kicked off the opening of Camp Woodland Summer Day
Camp with our first “Amazing Race Monday” of the
summer. Each week, children will participate in a variety of
competitions to earn points towards prizes at the end of the
summer. Participants must participate in at least five
Monday competitions to qualify and the top five children in
each age group will receive a prize the last week of camp.
Kalispell Parks and Recreation also has several other specialty camps starting in June.
We have three different Skyhawks sports camps for ages 6-12 that will be taking place in
various parks and facilities throughout the rest of the month. We are partnering with the
Academy of the Performing Arts again this summer to offer a preschool/kindergarten
dance camp June 17-20. We are also offering two art camps June 25-28, in partnership
with the Hockaday Museum of Art.
4.Public Works
MS4 Stormwater Permit Compliance
On April 10-11, the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ)
inspected the City of Kalispell’s Municipal Separate Storm Sewer
System (MS4) for compliance with our permit. Prior to the
inspection, DEQ requested approximately 1,420 documents be sent
for review. The inspection lasted 16 hours and included nine
employees of the City of Kalispell. The inspection included two
sections: 1) discussion and records review of the City’s Stormwater
Management Program and 2) field review of drainage areas,
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including stormwater outfalls and monitoring locations.
Last week, the City received the official inspection report. DEQ did not identify any
violations and identified many commendable efforts of the City’s Stormwater Program.
We are very pleased of our hard work to avoid violations and maintain compliance. Of
the six MS4s that have been inspected, Kalispell is the only one to not receive violations.
DEQ also provided recommendations to continue to improve our program, many of
which are already underway. Casey Lewis, Environmental Specialist, is the permit
coordinator and has done a fantastic job in preparing, updating and implementing
Kalispell’s Stormwater Management Program to ensure compliance with the MS4 Permit
regulations.
Kalispell is in the third year of a five year MS4 Permit cycle. This year we will be
focusing on updating and adopting new ordinances for compliance with the Construction,
Illicit Discharge Detection and Elimination, and Post Construction sections of the permit.
Water Main Replacement
The water main replacement project for 1st Ave WN from
W Washington St to Market St is at substantial completion.
This project replaced 1,113 linear feet of aged 6” 1926
water main with new 8” water main. City engineers
performed design and construction management for this
project.
5.Community Development
Road striping on Highway 2 East at the
intersection with Flathead Drive and Woodland
Park Drive was repainted last week under contract
warranty related to Kalispell’s USDOT TIGER
grant project. The striping completed last fall had
significantly eroded over the winter.
This intersection was built as part of the TIGER grant which constructed an industrial rail
park at the north east edge of the City. Rail park construction is complete. Removal of
existing tracks in downtown Kalispell and the installation of a linear park, trail and
complete street in the BNSF Railway right-of-way is under design. Construction of the
second phase is anticipated in fall 2020.
6.Building Department
In the last 2 weeks, we have issued permits for 4 single-family homes and 4 townhomes.
That will bring the total of new single-family/duplex and townhouse units for the year to
53, compared to 40 last year at this time. We are currently sitting at 24 units of
multifamily housing year to date. Last year, at this time, we had issued permits for 36
apartment units.
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A permit was issued for the Glacier Eye Clinic Addition located at 175 Timberwolf
Parkway. The project is valued at $2.6 million. The permit for the new 4,500 square foot
Spring Prairie shell building located at 2292 Hwy 93 N. was issued. The project is valued
at $640,000.
7.Planning Department
Staff members participated in a program called “KAOS” (Kalispell Art on the Street)
hosted by the chamber and the BID to develop a plan for bike racks in the downtown area.
Staff assisted in finding 3 initial locations and also assisted in the initial review of 70
proposals submitted by local artists and students from western Montana for potential
designs of downtown “art” bike racks.
The planning department is continuing efforts to develop the Kalispell bike and pedestrian
plan.
The department will be reviewing proposals received from several engineering firms who
are responding to a request for proposal to update the Kalispell Transportation Plan.
8.Fire Department
Since the last update, the Kalispell Fire Department has received 135 calls for service and
has conducted 6 outreach trainings with approximately 213 individuals in attendance.
Staff from the fire department have been transitioning our operations scheduling and staff
training documentation over to a new software program. This entails building out the
program specifics and requirements, and inputting all of the employee scheduling for the
upcoming year into the new system. This transition includes applying all of the
employees training records from one program to another. Although time consuming, this
has been relatively problem free and we look to have a go live date of July 1st.
In keeping with our training, crews have also begun the classroom intensive EMT and
Paramedic refresher training that is required for certification. The majority of this
training is facilitated in-house by our staff. To complete this training, we will be
reviewing and providing skills verification throughout the next year.
9.Finance Development
The fiscal year 2020 preliminary budget is complete and available to view on the City
website. The City Council reviewed the budget at work sessions on May 13 and 14. The
fiscal year 2020 preliminary budget is about $78.8 million, compared to fiscal year 2019
final budget amount of $86.4 million. This decrease of about $7.6 million includes
decreases of $7.0 million in the enterprise funds where a decrease of $12.6 million in
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sewer projects was offset by an increase of $6.0 million in storm water projects. A
decrease of $3.3 million in capital project funds was related to a portion of the Glacier
Rail Park project being completed. Fund types increasing from fiscal year 2019 were;
$0.5 million in special revenue funds, $1.9 million in the general fund, a large portion of
which is related to the Rail/Trail project, and $0.3 million in the internal service funds.
At the regular City Council meeting on June 17, the Council will be asked to authorize
the limited expenditure/expense of funds within the fiscal year 2020 preliminary budget
and call for a Public Hearing regarding the City’s fiscal year 2020 budget to be held on
July 1. The City’s fiscal year 2020 final budget will go to Council on August 19 for
approval.