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12-30-21 City Manager Report1 City of Kalispell OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER Information Memorandum 12/30/2021 1.Public Works WWTP Energy Study and Results Over the past year the Waste Water Treatment Plant has worked with WEC - Water/ Wastewater Energy Coaching participants including Flathead Electric Cooperative, Energy Smart Industrial, and Cascade Energy on an energy conservation study that looked at the WWTP’s current operations and energy consumption. The study kicked off with a facility tour and a brain-storming session to come up with areas, ideas, and projects to improve Kalispell’s WWTP’s energy efficiency and cost savings. Meters were installed at the plant to help pinpoint high energy consumption processes. Projects identified included large capital projects, upgrading old or inefficient equipment, and small treatment process changes. In all, 60 projects were listed and are in various phases of being implemented. To date, the most effective energy savings project was completed this last year with the replacement parts for the Trojan UV system. In the past, less expensive non-Trojan UV parts, i.e., ballast, bulbs, tubes were purchased for replacement parts. The less expensive replacement parts were ineffective and created a situation where more electricity was required to meet the E. Coli effluent discharge permit numbers. In 2021, 80 new bulbs, quartz tubes, and failed ballasts were replaced with Trojan parts. After the installation of the new parts was completed, energy consumption for the UV treatment process was reduced from 43.5 kwH down to 12.0 kwH. Other projects include rebuilding pumps, upgrading to a different style of pump (Fermenter Recirculation), adding variable frequency drives, fixing check valves on non-potable water pumps and fermenter supernatant pumps, and small changes to process controls such as aeration. Participating in this study has enabled the WWTP staff to gain valuable knowledge and resources to make the treatment plant and processes more energy efficient. 2.Police Department Officers Hunter Maier and Carlee Brown started at the Kalispell Police Department on December 10. Carlee is a Flathead native that has two years of experience with the Moscow, ID police department. As a prior Law Enforcement Officer, she will start an abbreviated field training to familiarize her with Montana law and procedure as well as Kalispell Police policy and standards. Hunter joins us from an enlistment in the Marines. 2 He will be attending the 12-week Montana Law Enforcement Academy in Helena starting January 10. The Kalispell Police Department responded to 56 motor vehicle crashes between December 20 and December 29. Officer Karen Webster was promoted to Sergeant on December 26. Sergeant Webster is a 15-year veteran of the Kalispell Police Department. She has been assigned supervision of a swing shift crew. Year to date calls-for-service stand at 34,851, this compares with 32,259 in 2020, and 35,811 in 2019. 3.Planning Department The Kalispell City Planning Board will hold a public hearing on January 4 and take public comments on the agenda items listed below: 1.File #KCU-21-09 – A request from Bergen, LLC for a conditional use permit to allow an accessory casino within a proposed bar to be located in the basement of the KM Building located at 29 3rd Street East. The property is located in the B-4 (Central Business) zone. 2.File #KCU-21-11 – A request from Fortify Holdings, LLC, for a conditional use permit to allow the conversion of an existing hotel (Fairbridge Inn/Outlaw Convention Center) into a multi-family residential dwelling containing up to 250 studio units. The project will involve renovation of all rooms, including upgrades to address building/fire code issues. Also included are site improvements to the parking area and upgraded recreational amenities. The property is located at 1701 Highway 93 South. The planning board will also hold a work session on the item listed below: 1.Files # KPUD-21-05; KPP-21-08; KZC-21-04 – A request from GKM Associates, LLC, for a zone change and Planned Unit Development (“PUD”) overlay on approximately 90.87 acres located to the east of West Springcreek Road between Two Mile Drive and Three Mile Drive, as well as a preliminary plat for Phase 1 of the development. The property is currently zoned B-1 (Neighborhood Business –about 3.9 acres) and R-3 (Residential – about 87 acres) with a PUD overlay. The proposed zone change would change approximately 44.24 acres of the R-3 to RA-1 (Residential Apartment). It would also realign and expand the B-1 area to approximately 5.82 acres. The existing PUD overlay would be replaced with a new PUD over the entire property. The PUD would include 65 single-family dwellings, 113 townhome/rowhouse dwellings, and 464 multi-family dwelling units, along with 2 commercial lots, park area, and open space. The preliminary plat would cover approximately 40.52 acres in the southeastern portion of the property and include the 65 single-family lots and 95 of the townhome/rowhouse 3 lots, as well as 6.2 acres of open space and 1.52 acres of parkland. The property can be described as Tract 1 of Certificate of Survey No. 20588, a tract of land, situated, lying and being in the Northwest Quarter of Section 11, Township 28 North, Range 22 West, P.M.M., 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 1 single-family home. That will bring the total of new single-family/duplex and townhouse units for the year to 241, compared to 303 at this time last year. There have been 649 multi-family housing units issued so far this year. Last year at this time, we had issued 156 multi-family housing units. There was a total of 160 combined building and/or fire inspections completed in the last 2 weeks. Residential – 65 Plumbing – 16 Commercial – 25 Mechanical - 24 Electrical – 18 Fire - 12 5.Community Development The City of Kalispell has been awarded a federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) in the amount of $30,000 by the Montana Department of Commerce (DOC) for the rehabilitation of the existing Samaritan House administrative facility, and the new construction of 16 units of multifamily housing for families with children at risk of homelessness or emerging from homeless status on the current campus (124 9th Avenue West in Kalispell). The Samaritan house Inc., as subrecipient of the CDBG grant funding is currently soliciting Fixed Price proposals for the architectural and engineering services to complete a Preliminary Architectural Report (PAR) according to all applicable Community Development Block Grant/Planning (CDBG) funding requirements. The State Historic Preservation Office and City Development Services Department are working together to finalize the six interpretive signs along the Kalispell Parkline. Lighting continues to be installed along the Kalispell Parkline. 4 6.Fire Department From December 1 to December 28, the Fire Department had 333 responses. Of the larger responses, 246 were medical incidents, 13 motor vehicle accidents, 13 fire alarm activations, 17 public assists/invalid, 1 house fire, 6 Haz-Mat (Gas leak, spills, carbon monoxide), 35 dispatched and canceled enroute (typically a fire call to assist nearby mutual aid fire departments and canceled after they arrive, i.e., Evergreen or Smith Valley or a no injury vehicle accident, canceled by police) and various other call types. We have had 4312 calls for service as of December 30, 2021. This compares to 3931 calls for service in 2020. New Firefighter-Paramedic academy for our 3 new recruits will begin January 18. The Chief and Assistant Chief are working on the agenda for the academy. A report was completed and given to Flathead County 911 for our annual EMS Levy reimbursement. These EMS levy funds are reimbursed based on the call volume of the organization within Flathead County. Reporting was completed for the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services for the Medicaid Supplemental payment. This supplemental payment is used to offset billing losses with Medicaid payments for our ambulance service. Fire crews have been busy with the building officials doing annual school inspections for all Kalispell area schools during the holiday school break. 7.Information Services IT staff are working through deployment of three replacement network switches to the public safety building, north fire station, and parks and recreation office. The functionality at public safety expands the existing configuration to provide 120 network interfaces from three switches and is configured through a single connection. The City’s IT helpdesk system was upgraded to the latest version. The upgrade removed manually added content regarding purchase history and is manually being added back in. The purchase history is used during the computer replacement planning or determining if the asset can be re-purposed. The upgrade permits the City IT to access the helpdesk system from an app on mobile devices as well as other fixes. A server was decommissioned as part of the server replacement schedule. A new server build is underway that will impact the police profiles and department shares, as well as provide other back-end functionality.