03-13-20 City Manager Report1
City of Kalispell
OFFICE OF THE CITY
MANAGER
Information Memorandum
3/13/2020
1.Public Works
Four Mile Drive Water Transmission Main
Construction has resumed for the Four Mile Drive Water
Transmission Main project. This project extends an 18"
PVC south from the existing 14" PVC in Stillwater Road to
Four Mile Drive, along Four Mile Drive heading west to
W. Spring Creek Road, turns and heads south along Farm
to Market Road and ties into the existing 18" PVC at the
intersection of Three Mile Drive and Heavens Peak Drive.
This new water transmission main optimizes water
operations by mitigating head losses, reduces pressure
variations, allows full utilization of the City’s new well,
and supports new growth demands. Construction is
anticipated to continue through spring into summer.
W Center St & 1st Ave W Traffic Signal Cabinet
The City of Kalispell Traffic Sign and Signals Department is in the process of updating
the traffic cabinet for the signal located at W Center St & 1st Ave W. The current cabinet
is maxed out on space and has no room for future upgrades. The upgraded traffic cabinet
was given to the City of Kalispell at no cost from the Montana Department of
Transportation from their replacement of several cabinets in the city of Bozeman. A
brand-new cabinet can cost
around $12,000. With the help
of MDT providing an
engineer plan and the
knowledge from the City’s
TSS Department, the cost to
upgrade the cabinet will be
less than $240. The cabinet
that is being installed was
provided with a nature theme
graffiti resistance wrap.
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2.Police Department
Officer Kyle Enser and Officer Eric Juhl started with the Kalispell Police Department on
March 10. The officers were sworn in by Judge Adams on March 11. Each officer will
have one week of orientation followed by three weeks of field training before going to
Helena for the 12-week police academy.
The KPD has responded to in excess of 15 windows broken out in motor vehicles
throughout the city in the last two weeks. The windows were believed to be broken with a
blunt object. Kalispell Detectives are following several leads.
Year to date calls for service are 6797. This compares with 6876 in 2019, and 6026, in
2018.
Chief Overman, Sheriff Heino and Commander Logan Shawback of the Northwest Drug
Task Force attended a Rocky Mountain HITDA (High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area)
meeting in Denver on March 10. In the last year the NWDTF has exceed targets for the
region in disrupting Drug Trafficking Organizations. Rocky Mountain HITDA provides
in excess of $130,000 for the operation of the regional team. The Kalispell Police
Department has one agent assigned to the task force. Funding is committed for the next
year.
3.Planning Department
The Planning Board met on March 10 and heard three application requests. The first
application request was from Owl Corporation for a conditional use permit to allow a
multi-family development as a second phase of an existing multi-family development.
The project contains ten buildings with a total of 120 dwelling units. The property is
located on the west end of Sawyer Lane/Owl View Subdivision near West View Estates
and is located in an RA-2 (Residential Apartment/Office) zone. The second application
request is from The Meridian Apartments, LLC for a conditional use permit to allow a
multi-family development with four buildings and a clubhouse, with a total of 144
dwelling units. The property is located at 41 Meridian Court in a B-1 (Neighborhood
Business) zone. The third and final request is from Eagle Valley Ranch Apartments, LLC
and Stillwater Corporation for major subdivision approval of Kalispell North Town
Center, Phases 3 and 4. The subdivision request encompasses a portion of the commercial
component of the PUD. Phases 3 and 4 total 39.3-acres and include a total of 26
commercial lots (23 in Phase 3 and 3 in Phase 4), a common area, and a new city street.
The Board did unanimously recommend approval of the three requests and their
recommendations will be forwarded onto the Council for their consideration at the April
6 meeting.
The Planning Board also held a work session on a proposed PUD development located at
430 Stillwater Road. The plan includes 93 single family lots, 192 multi-family units, and
approximately 1.77 acres of commercial/retail area, along with a clubhouse and
approximately 3.5 acres of park area. The PUD would provide for smaller lot
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sizes/widths and longer block lengths than typical standards. There was lengthy
discussion and Planning Staff will be working with the applicant over the coming weeks
to address some of the Planning Board’s concern prior to their April public hearing.
4.Building Department
In the last 2 weeks, we have issued permits for 11 single-family homes and 0 townhomes.
That will bring the total of new single-family/duplex and townhouse units for the year to
31, compared to 10 last year at this time.
At the end of 2019, the building department had issued permits for a total of 84 Multi-
family units. At this time for 2020 we have not issued any permits for Multi-family units.
However, there are currently two large Multi-family projects under review; The
Crossings located on Two Mile drive which would contain 324 units on full build out and
Frontier Village located at Treeline Drive which would contain 126 units at full build out.
The permit was issued for the new Old Navy Shell Building located at 2250 Hwy 93 N.
The project is valued at $1,090,000.
There was a total of 158 combined building and/or fire inspections completed in the last 2
weeks.
Residential – 57 Plumbing - 19
Commercial – 11 Mechanical - 10
Electrical – 10 Fire - 51
5.Community Development
The City of Kalispell has secured a Phase I environmental site assessment on behalf of
the Flathead Food Bank through the US EPA Region 8 Targeted Brownfields Assessment
program. The Phase I will be conducted as part of the due diligence process as the
Flathead Food Bank considers the purchase of an adjacent property. Work is expected to
begin April 2020.
Staff has also met with three major banks (Valley Bank, Glacier Bank, First Interstate)
located downtown, where parking was discussed with executives and a representative
from the Kalispell Business Improvement District. The goal of the meetings was to get a
general understanding of the banks parking needs and their future plans. Following these
meetings, staff will continue to work with the URA in order to come up with parking
policies for the City owned parking lots in downtown Kalispell.
6.Parks Department
We are working on the marketing and hiring of 100+ short-term positions needed for
parks maintenance, Woodland Water Park, Camp Woodland Summer Day Camp, and
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other recreation programs throughout the summer. We are working directly with the
career counselors at Flathead and Glacier High Schools this year to increase our applicant
pool. Our staff have scheduled informational sessions at FHS on February 27 and March
9, and at GHS on March 17.
Park crews are making repairs to the 6” water supply lines for the waterslides at
Woodland Waterpark that were damaged by recent vandalism. The vertical pipes are
over 20’ tall and were shattered the entire length. Other damage includes a basketball
standard that was thrown into the lap pool and a destroyed decoy.
With the spring-type weather upon us, park crews are in the process of switching
equipment from winter use to spring use. We have also added additional trash cans
around the Lawrence Park playground due to popularity.
Our Spring Break Camp is just around the corner. The camp will be held at Elrod
Elementary School from March 23-27, and will be full of nature activities, games, arts &
crafts, and fun field trips. The field trips include a visit to Lone Pine State Park, the
Hockaday Museum, and the Wave for an afternoon of swimming. Spots are still
available for this camp.
We are busy putting together our upcoming activity guide
that will be published in the Daily Inter Lake on April 27.
We are adding three new programs this summer that
include hula camp, skateboarding camp, youth financial
camp called Camp Millionaire, and a 3V3 basketball
youth sports league for grades 3-8.
Our next youth sports leagues will be our Spring and Rookie Soccer
programs. The early registration deadline for Spring and Rookie
Soccer ends on March 27.