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10-01-21 City Manager Report1 City of Kalispell OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER Information Memorandum 10/1/2021 1.Fire Department From September 1through September 28, the Fire Department had 321 responses. Of these, there were 215 medical incidents, 10 Motor vehicle accidents (including car vs. pedestrians), 13 fire calls (Cooking, Dumpsters, rubbish, etc.), 16 Fire alarm activations, 11 public assists, and 7 Haz-Mat (Gas leak, spills, carbon monoxide). Lieutenant Chris Rupp will be promoted to Captain effective October 9. The Fire Department is moving through the hiring process with 11 applicants. We currently have two openings, though there is an additional anticipated opening with a retirement in November, which will likely be filled with this round of hiring. Montana State Fire Training (Instructor Rick Paulson) and Assistant Chief Jessica Kinzer delivered multiple days of automobile extrication training at R & J wrecking. This involved the latest techniques of making entry in a vehicle that could be severely damaged in a crash and methods to quickly remove victims. We are preparing an Engineer exam (Fire Engine/Ladder Truck Operator) test. This exam will have three portions: a practical evaluation, written exam, and interview. The current Engineer list expires in December, and it is anticipated there will be one promotion off this current list with a retirement in November. The Fire Chief has been working on department policies, updating and changing the format for consistency and ease of use and understanding. The Fire Chief and Assistant Chief have begun visiting our neighboring Mutual Aid Fire Department partners. Expectations from agencies, improvement on service delivery, and collaborative training have been some of the items of discussion. 2.Information Services A networking project is underway as the Private Fiber and Direct Internet Access Internet Service RFP goes through the procurement process. The project will add fiber cabling to City buildings that are not in the downtown area. The City buildings will be connected 2 via a secure private network and each building will have internet access that is much faster than the existing internet access. The project will be the first part of the wide area network changes for the City. The second part will happen later this year and bring all buildings together into the network and create a secondary internet service provider to reduce the likeliness the City buildings will have an internet outage. City IT staff worked with vendor support to resolve an issue with the microphones and speakers in the courtroom. The court recording works through the microphones and is critical to operations of the court. GIS staff participated in ArcGIS Enterprise Administration training and obtained information to administer the City’s ArcGIS Enterprise environment. Included in the training was tuning published map services to ensure resources load timely and backing up the content. Administrating the ArcGIS Enterprise environment aids in getting more departments to use Cityworks to manage work orders and use the maps from ArcGIS Enterprise. GIS staff continue to support other City departments flying the Drone to aid in projects or issues that arise. 3.Planning Department The Kalispell Planning Board will hold a public hearing at their October 12 meeting and take public comments on the agenda items listed below: 1.Files #KZC-21-02 and KCU-21-07 – A request from Samaritan House, Inc. for a zone change and a conditional use permit on approximately 2.42 acres of land at 1110 2nd Street West. The proposed zone change would also apply to a tract of land at the northeast corner of the intersection of South Meridian Road and 2nd Street West, which is owned by the City of Kalispell and contains approximately 0.1 acres. The existing zoning on the properties is P-1 (Public) and the proposed zoning is B-3 (Core Area Business). The conditional use permit is a request to allow sleeping space as part of a homeless shelter, along with a dining area and shared community space. In addition, there would be 16 multi-family housing units for long term housing which are a permitted use within the B-3 zone and not subject to the conditional use permit. The proposal would include remodeling of existing space as well as new construction. 2.Files #KZC-21-03 and KCU-21-08 – A request from Meridian Investments, LLC for a zone change and a conditional use permit on approximately 1.0 acre of land located to the east of 41 Meridian Court. The property is currently zoned R-4 (Residential), and the proposed zone change would be to B-1 (Neighborhood Business). The zone change would allow multi-family dwellings as a conditionally permitted use on the property. The requested conditional use permit would expand a multi-family development currently under construction by adding a building and extending parking to the additional land. The building would contain 36 dwelling units. The planning board will also hold a work session on the item listed below: 3 1.Files #KA-21-05 and KPUD-21-04 – A request from Bish’s RV for the annexation of two parcels located at 3100 Highway 93 South containing approximately 8.36 acres of land with an initial zoning designation of B-2 (General Business). The proposal would add a Planned Unit Development (“PUD”) overlay on the two parcels along with a third parcel containing approximately 12.58 acres that is already within the city limits with a B-2/PUD placeholder designation. The Bish’s RV PUD as proposed would then be a Commercial PUD on a total of approximately 20.94 acres and would contemplate a renovation and expansion of an existing RV dealership. The properties to be annexed can be described as Lots 1A and 2A of the Amended Plat of Lots 1 and 2 of Ashley Business Park, according to the map or plat thereof on file and of record in the office of the Clerk and Recorder of Flathead County, Montana. Documents pertaining to the agenda items are on file for public inspection at the Kalispell Planning Department, 201 First Avenue East, Kalispell, MT 59901, and are available for public review during regular office hours. In addition, information on the agenda items are posted on our website at https://mt-kalispell.civicplus.com/314/Planning-Board under planning board “upcoming agenda.” 4.Building Department In the last 2 weeks, we have issued permits for 10 single-family homes and 2 duplexes. That will bring the total of new single-family/duplex and townhouse units for the year to 203, compared to 212 last year at this time. There have been 329 multi-family housing units issued so far this year. Last year at this time we had issued 132 multi-family housing units. There was a total of 139 combined building and/or fire inspections completed in the last 2 weeks. Residential – 66 Plumbing – 13 Commercial – 23 Mechanical - 19 Electrical – 14 Fire - 4 5.Community Development City staff have begun meeting with the MT. Hotel Development Partners on the Charles Hotel proposal for the city-owned parking lot on Main Street in downtown Kalispell. The purpose of meeting is to draft a Developer’s Agreement outlining the roles and responsibilities of all parties to the proposed project in addition to addressing project timeline, financing, and public process. Once drafted, the Developer’s Agreement and any associated Tax Increment Financing associated with the project will be reviewed by the Urban Renewal Agency with a recommendation that will be forwarded to the Kalispell City Council for their consideration. 4 6.Parks Department Forestry’s fall contract to prune 222 trees and remove 19 trees along 1st Street, 2nd Street, 10th Street East, and 11th Street has begun. Forestry staff are pruning trees along the 900 block of 5th Avenue East. Park irrigation systems have been winterized for the year. Most of the park seasonal bathrooms are currently still open; however, they will soon be winterized as overnight temperatures continue to drop. Transient issues continue to be a focus of our park staff this fall. Camps and trash persist along the Parkline Trail, Woodland Park, Depot Park and Lawrence Park. We are working more closely with the police department considering recent events in the community. With winter not too far away, we have begun our search for ice skating instructors for our “beginning skating” programs at the Woodland Ice Center beginning in December. Our 6-week Little Dribblers youth basketball league begins on Saturday, October 16. Participation in Little Dribblers has increased this fall with over 270 participants registered so far (compared to 236 last fall). With the increased participation, we have secured a third gym to keep up with demand. Pre K and Kindergarten practices/games will be played at the Russell Gym, 1st/2nd grade will be held at the Peterson Gym, and 3rd/4th grade will be held at the Rankin Gym. 7.Public Works Secondary Digester and TWAS Tanks – Coatings Inspection The City’s consultant performed a site visit on July 26 to perform the three-year warranty inspection on the Kalispell WWTP West Secondary Digester Cover and TWAS Storage Tank. Work performed on the Digester Cover included the removal of existing coatings by abrasive blasting, welding on improvements described in the contract drawings of this project, and application of new protective coatings during the summer of 2018. The General contractor, Syblon Reid, as well as the Coatings Application sub-contractor, National Coating and Lining Company, were onsite during the warranty inspection to assist with the inspection as well as accomplish any necessary repairs or touchups. The Digester was emptied, cleaned and vented by the City in anticipation of the inspection. 5 The Consultant Coatings Specialist performed the inspection by floating around the inside of the Digester observing each radial beam, lid sections, as well as the peripheral thrust ring. Overall, the coating systems were found to be in satisfactory condition and met the requirements described in the contract documents. Observations verified that the coating systems were applied and cured in accordance with the specifications and the material manufacturer's recommendations. There were small pinholes discovered during inspection and the contractor was onsite and able to immediately feather the edges surrounding the defects and make the necessary repairs in accordance with the written recommendations of the paint manufacturer.