05-29-20 City Manager Report1
City of Kalispell
OFFICE OF THE CITY
MANAGER
Information Memorandum
5/29/2020
1.Parks Department
The locomotive that was gifted to the City from Mission Mountain Railroad that was
placed where the future core trail will
run, now has a fence installed around it
to protect it from vandalism. Staff also
boarded up the windows to keep rocks
from damaging the windows by
potential vandals.
A contractor is currently installing a rail
barrier at Woodland Park. This will
help move people to designated entry points (paved or concrete paths), reduce vehicles
driving over concrete curbs into grass areas, and provide parking barriers that fit more in
line with the natural look of Woodland Park.
With the announcement that Montana is moving into Phase 2 on June 1, Recreation has
begun moving forward with opening Camp Woodland Summer Day Camp as originally
planned on Wednesday, June 10. Currently there are 148 participants pre-registered for
the camp and parents have until Friday, May 29, at 5pm to complete their payment for the
days requested. We will reopen registration to the public on June 2 to fill any remaining
spots. To facilitate Camp Woodland this year, we will begin installation of the new
20x40 canopy tents at the camp center the week of May 26 as weather permits to help
with social distancing. We are also identifying new COVID-19 signage needs for areas
such as check-in, hand washing stations, etc. Staff training for Camp Woodland staff will
take place on Saturday, June 6 and Sunday, June 7.
Rocky Mountain Radar on May 20-21 inspected pool lines on both the lazy river and the
activity pool at the Woodland Water Park. They identified areas in each pool that they
believe have cracks in the PVC lines. Staff have begun excavating around the suspected
area in the lazy river and will do additional testing before starting repairs.
2.Fire Department
Since the last update, the Kalispell Fire Department has received 140 calls for service.
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Staff have been building an inventory program to assist us with our daily operations.
When complete, the program will dovetail into our training and scheduling software and
help us streamline our daily, weekly, monthly and annual apparatus checks and
maintenance requirements utilizing any web enabled device. It will also assist us in
tracking and documenting our inventory status for our medical supplies and ordering.
Also, as part of our local medical protocols and the requirements for DEA, this software
will allow us to have a secure program to monitor and manage controlled substances.
This buildout is scheduled to be complete by July 1.
3. Public Works
FOUR MILE DRIVE WATER TRANSMISSION MAIN
The Four Mile Drive Project is the highest priority
project identified in the Water Facility Plan Update for
the Upper Pressure Zone. At completion, the project will
add redundancy to the Upper Pressure Zone, mitigate
pressure fluctuations, decrease head losses, decrease
tank turnover times in Sheepherder Tank, increase Firm
Capacity and increase water storage during the peak
flow time of Summer and Fall irrigation. The project
consists of approximately 3 miles of 18” C900 PVC
water transmission main, including 3 directional drills
under wetland areas and state highway. The project starts
on 3 Mile Drive near Spring Creek Estates, heads west
along 3 Mile Drive to West Spring Creek, then north
along West Spring Creek to Farm to Market, continuing
North to Four Mile Drive. The transmission main
continues east along 4 Mile Drive to Stillwater Road, where it turns north and parallels
Stillwater Road until it terminates with a connection to the existing 14” transmission line
in Timberwolf Parkway. The contractor has now completed the underground construction
on the project. In the coming weeks, the contractor will begin pressure testing and
disinfection of the newly constructed transmission main as well as completion of
remaining landscaping and surfacing restoration.
CONSUMER CONFIDENCE REPORT (CCR)
The CCR or Annual Water Quality Report has been
completed for 2019. Notices of the report are advertised in the
utility bills. The CCR is an annual water quality report the
City is required to provide to 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
the EPA’s drinking water requirements for 2019. A link to the
report can be found on the city website at:
https://www.kalispell.com/DocumentCenter/View/561/Consumer-Confidence-Report-
PDF?bidId=
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4. Planning Department
The Kalispell Planning Board will hold a public hearing at their June 9 meeting to hear
one application request consisting of the following:
File #KCU-20-03 – A request from Chrysalis Group Home for a conditional use permit to
operate a youth group home for eight (8) or fewer girls as transitional housing while
attending local schools and pursuing employment opportunities. The property is located
at 1005 8th Avenue East and is a part of Chrysalis Schools of Montana, based in Eureka,
Montana. Under federal and state law, group homes of this size have certain protections.
The conditional use permit cannot be denied, although reasonable conditions may be
placed on the facility consistent with conditions that might be placed on single-family
homes. The property can be more particularly described as the North ½ of Lot 11 and the
West 30 feet of the North ½ of Lot 12, Block 256, Kalispell Addition 8, as shown on the
map or plat thereof on file and of record in the office of the Clerk and Recorder, Flathead
County, Montana.
The Planning Board will also be holding a work session and continuing discussion on a
proposed PUD development located at 430 Stillwater Road. The subject property is
situated at the intersection of Stillwater Road and Four Mile Drive and was part of the
now expired Starling PUD covering Section 35. The project envisions a mixture of
single-family residential and multi-family residential uses along with a retail area
intended to serve the development and the greater area.
Staff will be meeting with the Kalispell Downtown BID to discuss historic design
guidelines for downtown Kalispell. The BID was awarded a $15,000 grant through the
Montana Department of Commerce Main Street Program to create historic district
guidelines and City staff will facilitate those efforts over the coming year. Any guidelines
created through the planning process will have to be considered by both the Planning
Board and Kalispell City Council.
5. Building Department
In the last 4 weeks, we have issued permits for 7 single-family homes and 1 duplex. That
brings the total of new single-family/duplex and townhouse units for the year to 79,
compared to 43 last year at this time.
The permit was issued for the COVID-19 Alternative Care Facilities, which are 98
temporary patient rooms on the 3rd Floor of the Montana Children’s Center.
There was a total of 138 combined building and/or fire inspections completed in the last 4
weeks.
Residential – 59 Plumbing - 11
Commercial – 16 Mechanical - 11
Electrical – 9 Fire - 32
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6.Community Development
The City is currently accepting Statements of Qualification in response to the Request for
Proposals advertised for a real estate firm for the sale of the remaining four lots at Old
School Station. The RFP is available on the City website at www.kalispell.com. The
deadline for submission of SOQ’s is June 12.
Community Development staff continues to work with Flathead County Economic
Development Authority, Montana Department of Environmental Quality, US EPA
Brownfields on the required process for brownfields environmental site assessments and
revolving loan fund clean-up loan programs for two former CHS owned Core Area
properties. This work is projected to extend into fall.
The Federal Railroad Administration’s review of the Supplemental Environmental
Assessment and summation of public comment is near completion, allowing for the
potential issue of a Finding of No Significant Impact and selection of a core area
north/south street connector. Staff is working on an adjustment of the east terminus of the
rail line at Glacier Rail Park, requested by BNSF, and will prepare a Notice of Interim
Trail Use modification to be submitted to the Surface Transportation Board.
7.Police Department
Officer Tara Oster was awarded the Kalispell Lion’s “Officer of the Year” award. Officer
Oster was nominated by her peers for her positive attitude, intelligence, strong work ethic,
and volunteerism in her community.
Year to date calls for service are 12,585, this compares with 14,603 in 2019 and 13,344 in
2018. We are seeing call volumes steadily grow since the Covid-19 restrictions are
easing.
The Kalispell Police Department recently converted a seldom used classroom to a larger
squad room. The squad room can still be utilized as an internal classroom. We have
partnered with Kalispell Fire to schedule their classroom for more formal trainings. The
previous squad room will soon become an evidence room, increasing the capacity of our
evidence storage at the police department by 50%. Our current evidence storage was
beyond realistic capacity and this will allow for better organization and future
growth. This project was done with internal labor and a budget of around $500.00.
The first hybrid patrol vehicle to be put on the road already has about 2700 miles on it.
2700 miles would typically equate to about 450 hours on the engine in the standard cars.
At 2700 miles, the hybrid vehicle had 87 hours on the engine. That is a significant drop in
engine hours for the same mileage. As temperatures increase, air conditioner use could
affect that, and in winter, the engine stays on as long as the heater is on. Therefore, a
month is a very small sample, and not enough data to be representative of a longer time
frame.
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8. City Clerk
The City Facebook page has surpassed 7,000 followers. Instagram has grown to almost
2,000 followers. Twitter and LinkedIn continue to see slow increases in reach.
The City Clerk’s office has provided administrative support for seven bid or qualification
invites across departments during the month of May.