02-18-22 City Manager Report1
City of Kalispell
OFFICE OF THE CITY
MANAGER
Information Memorandum
2/18/2022
1. Parks and Recreation
The Kalispell Tree Committee met to discuss Arbor Day, April 29, at Woodland Park.
All 3rd graders from School District #5 are planning to attend a full day of activities at the
park. Environmental professionals in the community will be invited to attend and host
stations for students to learn about trees and the environment.
Park staff have replaced flooring at the Attorney’s office (the old water department) that
had been damaged by water over time. We had enough left-over material from the
original installation to fix the area that had been damaged.
Forestry staff have completed the pruning of 5th Avenue East as well as Stratford Village
Subdivision. Crews are now working in Glacier Commons and Buffalo Stage
Subdivision. Once complete, the crew will begin pruning trees along 6th Avenue East.
Friends of Lawrence Park who has supported the acquisition, original development, and
some of the amenities within the park, recently made one last donation to Kalispell Parks
and Recreation before they disband. The donation is specific for additional amenities
within the park for the community to enjoy. We are currently working through the details
of what these will be.
We hosted a Valentine’s Day Dance with over 100
participants. Special thanks to our sponsors, Kalispell School
District, Parkside Credit Union, and Able Body Collision for
supporting this event for the community. We are looking
forward to next year’s Valentines Dance on February 11,
2023.
Spring Little Dribblers registration closes this Friday, and we
are on track to have over 300 participants for this 6-week
session. This a non-competitive introduction to basketball for
boys and girls ages PreK through 4th grade.
Futsal is wrapping up with playoffs taking place this week and next. A champion will be
crowned on February 24.
2
We are beginning our last session of ice-skating lessons this week. This will conclude
the 5 different sessions held this season. We had a record high number of participants
with 166.
2. Public Works
Lower Zone Reservoir 1 -Drain Valve Replacement
Last week, the Water Crew replaced the drain valve on Lower Zone Reservoir #1.
During a video inspection of the drain piping last fall, staff found that a 1912 era valve
was leaking water from the valve into the discharge drain system. The water entering the
discharge drain system flows through a conveyance system and outfalls to a nearby
slough. However, due to the age and unsealed joints in the vitrified clay discharge drain
piping, the water leaking into the drain piping was exfiltrating before the outfall,
therefore not providing staff
any evidence of leakage.
Once the leaking valve was
found, a new valve was
procured, and staff set out to
dechlorinate and drain the
tank to replace the valve.
The valve is in a valve pit
outside of the tank at an
approximate depth of 25’,
making ingress and egress
for staff and tools difficult
due to the confined space
environment. Once the
valve was removed from the
system, crews determined
that the cause of the valve
leakage was from 4 golf balls which were lodged in the seat and prevented the gate from
fully closing. Staff hypothesize the golf balls could have entered the tank, either prior to
the installation of the tank lids, or during a tank inlet and outlet modification.
Engineering CIPs 2022
Engineering staff are finishing final designs and DEQ reviews for several large CIPs
scheduled for bid and construction this year. Current projects include:
1. Sewer: Lift Station 9 Replacement Project
2. Sewer: 1st Ave EN Alley Sanitary Sewer Replacement
3. WWTP/Sewer: Influent Sewer Main and WWTP Headworks Inlet Structure
Replacement
4. Storm: Stormwater Quality Treatment Facility - Main and Wyoming Street
Outfall to the Stillwater River
3
3.Planning Department
The Planning Board held a public hearing on February 8 and heard two application
requests. The application requests consisted of the following:
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 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 25.60 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
lots, as well as 6.2 acres of open space and 1.52 acres of parkland.
2.File #KPP-22-01 – A request from Silvermont Properties, LLLP, for preliminary
plat approval for Silverbrook Estates Phase 3, a major subdivision containing 12
lots (10 residential and 2 commercial) on approximately 22.12 acres including the
lots, roads, and open space. The property is located in the northeast portion of
Silverbrook Estates.
The Board recommended approval of the two application requests. The recommendations
will be forwarded to Council for consideration at the March 7 meeting.
Staff has prepared revisions to the City Floodplain Management Ordinance reflecting
state updates to the model ordinance. Updates include new and modified definitions,
language to clarify confusion provisions, and revisions with regard to mandatory aspects
of Federal and Montana law and policy. In addition to these changes, the proposed
Floodplain Management Ordinance includes FIRM Panel 30029C1800J to the list of
FIRM panels within city limits as a result of annexation since the last revision of the City
of Kalispell Floodplain Management Ordinance in 2015. Council will be holding a
Resolution of Intent to hold a public hearing on the proposed ordinance update at their
February 22 meeting.
4.Building Department
In the last 2 weeks, we have issued permits for 4 single-family homes and 2 townhomes.
That will bring the total of new single-family/duplex and townhouse units for the year to
24, which is the same as last year at this time.
There have been 24 multi-family housing units issued so far this year, which is the same
4
as last year at this time.
There was a total of 111 combined building and/or fire inspections completed in the last 3
weeks.
Residential – 57 Plumbing – 13
Commercial – 22 Mechanical - 9
Electrical – 10 Fire – 14
5.Community Development
Lighting along the Kalispell Parkline is complete and active.
Pedestrian crossing mast arms and signals have been
installed at 5th Avenue West, 1st Avenue East, 3rd Avenue
East and 4th Avenue East and will be operational when
construction of the trail is complete.
6.Fire Department
From February 1 to February 15, the Fire Department had 169 responses. Of the larger
responses, 131 were medical incidents, 6 Motor vehicle accidents, 1 Structure Fire, 2
cooking fires, 10 Fire alarm activations, 2 public assists/invalid, 1 Haz-Mat (Gas leak,
spills, carbon monoxide), and 16 dispatched and canceled enroute.
The new Firefighter-Paramedic academy for our 4 new recruits has been completed.
These individuals are now assigned to various shifts working with their Field Training
Officers (FTO). Over the next couple of months, they will act as an extra on the crew
assignments so they can be evaluated on their patient treatments skills, the proper use of
medical protocols, and their firefighter I skills.
The State of Montana Fire Training School Director came to Kalispell this past week to
meet with both Chief’s Kinzer and Pearce to visit Columbia Falls Fire’s new training
facility. Working with Columbia Falls Fire Chief Weeks and the State of Montana, we
will be able to have FFI academies in the Flathead which will be a large cost savings and
further networking and relationship building with our local fire agencies.
All paramedics are now enrolled in Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) classes to
be completed by March 1.
This past week, the Flathead County Medical Director had his quarterly meeting with
Kalispell Fire regarding patient care reviews and additional education in the pre-hospital
setting.
5
7.Information Services
IT staff are working with various department staff to research items to be included in the
FY 2023 budget. Various projects remain in the current year and are in various stages of
work. Early work is starting for the AV Council Chambers video project upgrade. The
electronic records repository upgrade options are being reviewed.
IT staff are testing a trial license for a new image deployment software to improve the
process for deploying computer builds. IT staff received most of the FY 2022 computers
included in the replacement and are starting to deploy computers to staff.
Geographic Information System staff are collaborating with Flathead County GIS to use
Flathead County GIS published data for addressing parcels and all links within the
surveys within the Kalispell Development Services web map. The data collaboration
provides time savings and removes redundant work that would be done by City GIS staff
building the same application from data collected from the Montana Cadastral parcel
database.