Loading...
05-14-21 City Manager Report City of Kalispell OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER Information Memorandum 5/14/2021 1. Information Services The City Hall mezzanine office floor network cabling is completed. IT staff are working to setup the communication between the mezzanine network and the rest of the network. Once the network connectivity is established between the core network and mezzanine offices, staff will be able to move into the offices. The Public Works Department was moved to a new server. IT is working to move data off the old server to allow IT to decommission the old server. Laptops and workstation computers are being deployed for a City attorney, GIS and survey staff. The check scanning computer for the water clerks is also being replaced. The computers being taken out of use will be re-purposed for other staff with new hard drives and a fresh operating system image. A highly used server had a hardware failure. The server required IT’s attention at 7:15 AM Monday, but by 7:30 AM the server was available for use. IT staff replaced the failed hardware after hours, and the server is operating at full capacity again. GIS staff are supporting Drone requests. The City’s Drone has been flown multiple times to create videos to support projects in Public Works. GIS staff has continued working on an interactive web map showing Planning applications that are “in progress” or “complete” as it relates to subdivisions and addressing. 7. Building Department In the last 2 weeks, we have issued permits for 10 single-family homes, 4 townhomes and 1 duplex. That will bring the total of new single-family/duplex and townhouse units for the year to 104, compared to 67 last year at this time. There have been 148 multi-family housing units issued so far this year. Last year at this time we had not issued any multi-family housing permits. There were a total of 116 combined building and/or fire inspections completed in the last 2 weeks. Residential – 67 Plumbing – 8 Commercial – 15 Mechanical - 12 Electrical – 9 Fire - 5 City of Kalispell OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER 2. Parks Department Saturday May 8th, thirty volunteers gathered at A Ray of Hope to plant trees around the community shelters. After a brief tree planting instruction from City Arborist Colter Hansen, volunteers divided into three groups and began planting forty trees. Three restaurants donated lunch for the volunteers as well. A huge thank you to the community volunteers for their help with this planting project. We recently updated two of the Kalispell Police Department restrooms. These bathrooms had cabinets that were falling apart and flooring that was worn from years of use. Registrations are continuing to come in daily for Woodland Summer Day Camp. We are currently averaging over 111 participants per day and the majority of our days this summer have already reached capacity (120 participants). We still have limited availability, predominately on Mondays and Fridays. The Aquatics staff have started getting the Woodland Water Park ready for opening on June 9th. The lazy river has been drained and cleaned from winter debris. We will begin draining and cleaning the lap pool next week. We are also still in need of Lifeguards for the season. With our new summer activity guide coming out in the Daily Interlake on April 30th, we are already seeing lots of registrations for other activities. Our Skyhawks Sports Camps already have 144 participants registered for various camps throughout the summer. We also have 34 participants that have registered for our KPR rafting trips this summer with the Glacier Raft Company. City of Kalispell OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER 3. Public Works Northwest Regional Stormwater Management: Over the past several years, Public Works has been working toward facility layouts, final design, and procurement of properties/easements for the Multi-Use Regional Stormwater Facility. The final project consists of conveyance piping and a series of regional stormwater detention facilities intended to mitigate existing drainage issues and prevent increases in flooding. Bids were received for the Northwest Regional Stormwater Management Project and the project was awarded to LHC, Inc. Construction started in early May and is scheduled to be completed by November of this year. 2nd Avenue West Water Main Project: The 2nd Avenue W Water Main Replacement Project is in the central area of town and replaces over two blocks of 1920 era water main sections and appurtenances. The project includes furnishing labor, materials, and equipment required to replace an existing 8-inch cast iron water main with approximately 807 linear feet of 8-inch PVC water main. Also included in the project are water valves, fire hydrants, water service connections, paved surface, sidewalk and landscape restoration. The contractor has completed most of the water main installation between 2nd St W and Center St. Two fire hydrants have been installed and service installation is anticipated to begin later this week. Connections in 2nd St W (requiring closure of the 2nd St W and 2nd Ave W intersection) as well as connections in Center St will be done in the coming weeks. The project is anticipated to be completed in early June. City of Kalispell OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER 4. Police Department Service Calls: Year to date calls for service stand at 11,918, this compares with 11,246 in 2020, and 12,821 in 2019. Several Kalispell Police Officers attended the CIT training academy in Kalispell May 3rd- 7th. Its purpose is to assist first responders in engaging, assessing, and assisting individuals in crisis with mental and/or co-occurring substance disorders. CIT is a 40- hour evidence-based training that encompasses tools and skills needed for first responders to better manage individuals presenting mental health and/or co-occurring substance disorders. This training exposes the participants to materials and experiences from trained mental health and medical professionals to better prepare them to effectively and safely work with this unique population. It is the department’s goal to get all officers through this valuable training. Officers from the Kalispell Police Department volunteered time to present Special Olympians with medals for the annual games held at Legends Stadium on April 29th and 30th. Kalispell is hosting the Law Enforcement Memorial on May 15, 2021. The event is to honor those who have served, continue to serve, and most importantly those who have lost their lives serving their community, as well as their survivors. There will be a processional parade at noon and ceremony at 1 p.m. on Saturday, May 15th in the Expo Center at the Fairgrounds. This event is hosted annually on May 15th with Montana cities rotating as host. The Major Case Unit conducted a training on May 3, 2021 at Lone Pine State Park. The park ranger at Lone Pine State Park, Brian Schwartz, allowed the team to simulate recovering buried remains or evidentiary items in a patch of ground that would not disturb native grasses. Officer Parce and his canine Cairo were welcomed to the MCU team. They have been recently certified in Article Detection, and Cairo is able to locate any item with human odor. City of Kalispell OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER 5. Planning Department The Kalispell City Planning Board held a work session at their May 11, 2021 meeting to discuss the following two items: 1. File #KPUD-21-01; and KPP-21-02 – A request from Bison Hill, LLC for the Mountain View Planned Unit Development (“PUD”), which is a Residential PUD overlay on approximately 139 acres of land abutting the north side of Foys Lake Road to the west of the Highway 93 Bypass, along with major preliminary plat approval for Phase 1 of the development. The property was previously annexed with a PUD overlay called Willow Creek, which has since expired. This proposal is for a new PUD by a different applicant. The PUD calls for a total of 407 dwelling units (225 single family lots, 16 cottage lots and 166 townhome lots) along with approximately 49.1 acres of open space and park area. The Phase 1 preliminary plat consists of approximately 21.6 acres with 102 lots (5 single family lots and 97 townhome lots), streets and open space. The Mountain View PUD and preliminary plat application is scheduled to go to public hearing at the Planning Board’s regularly scheduled meeting on June 8, 2021. 2. MOVE 2040 Transportation Plan – Staff and City consultants presented the DRAFT Move 2040 Transportation Plan to the Board to solicit comments. This DRAFT MOVE 2040 transportation plan will serve to update and replace the existing Kalispell Transportation Plan last updated in 2007. The transportation plan will help guide the development of the City transportation system in a comprehensive and methodical fashion. It provides an analysis of existing transportation conditions, transportation demand forecasting, a discussion of alternative travel modes within the area and identification of specific problem areas relative to crash occurrences, intersection capacities, and street corridor capacities. The plan also includes recommendations for travel demand management and provides a series of recommendations for improvements to the transportation system including short term management changes, major street system improvements and miscellaneous upgrades to the existing transportation system. The transportation plan update also includes a chapter designated towards bicycle and pedestrian system analysis and recommendations. The plan concludes with funding programs and policy plan. The City of Kalispell and the Montana Department of Transportation initiated the planning process for the plan mid-September 2019 and anticipate a Council presentation and adoption early this fall. During the month of May, staff will be seeking public input on the draft plan in an effort to create a final draft in June. Procedurally, the transportation plan needs to be adopted as an amendment to the Kalispell Growth Policy Plan – It 2035. City of Kalispell OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER 8. Community Development The Kalispell Parkline project including the base bid and all additive alternates was awarded to Sandry Construction by the Kalispell City Council on May 3, 2021. Staff is working through contract documents with the chosen contractor and will be planning a ceremonial signing of the contract on May 24th. The EPA Brownfields program and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) Brownfields program are partnering to address historical environmental issues at the northeast corner of Main Street and Fourth Street East in Kalispell at the former Classical Gas location. The week of May 17th, EPA’s contractor TetraTech, will remove the underground fuel storage tank, fuel pumps and overhead canopy to allow for phase II environmental site assessment testing. On or about June 1st, MDEQ’s contractor will begin soil removal and disposal at the Flathead County Landfill. The South Kalispell Airport Road Traffic Improvement project is nearing completion. LHC, the project’s prime contractor, and their subcontractors are working through punch list items to finalize the project.