03-04-22 City Manager Report1
City of Kalispell
OFFICE OF THE CITY
MANAGER
Information Memorandum
3/4/2022
1. Parks and Recreation
Begg Park and the Dog Park have been closed in
response to seasonal flooding due to melting snow,
recent rains, and frozen ground. The park will remain
closed until surface water evaporates/drains and turf
can sustain use without detriment.
Forestry has completed pruning in the Glacier
Commons and Buffalo Stage Subdivisions and are now pruning in the Silverbrook
Subdivision.
After 7 months of being on order, we
received our new field striper for painting
field lines at the Kalispell Youth Athletic
Complex. We have approximately 7 miles of
lines to paint each week. With an additional
7 more fields potentially coming online this
year, the sprayer will help reduce the hours
needed to accomplish this task.
Both our youth and adult indoor soccer leagues finished this past week. The Kalispell
Kickers youth indoor soccer league at Rankin Elementary played their final games on
February 26. The championship game for our 5v5 adult futsal league took place on
February 24. Registration for our youth Spring Soccer league is open. The registration
deadline is April 8, and the first practices/scrimmages will be held on April 20 and April
22.
Our Little Dribblers basketball league will begin on March 5. This will be the largest
basketball league we have ever had with over 400 participants. PreK and Kindergarten
games will be at Russell Elementary. 1st and 2nd grade boys will play at Peterson
Elementary. 1st and 2nd grade girls as well as all 3rd and 4th grade participants will play
at Rankin Elementary.
Due to rain and poor ice conditions, we are unable to complete our last two ice skating
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lessons of our final session. This season had the highest participation ever in our program
with 165 participants.
2. Public Works
2021 Stormwater Annual Report
The City of Kalispell is required to submit an annual report to
stay in compliance with the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer
System (MS4) Permit issued by the State of
Montana’s Department of Environmental Quality
(DEQ). The 2021 Annual Report includes information on
how the City met last year’s permit requirements.
Highlights Include:
• 2021 Stormwater TMDL Action Plan Updates
▪ Approximately 3876 tons of sediment, 13 tons
of phosphorus, and 85 tons of nitrogen
prevented from reaching local waterbodies
• 247 Construction Stormwater Permits reviewed and approved – 237 Construction
Stormwater Permit site inspections
• In collaboration with the Flathead Basin Commission, Kalispell was a host site for
a 2020 and 2021 Big Sky Watershed Corps Member.
New MS4 Permit Issued
MS4 Permits are issued for 5-year cycles with the last one expiring December 31, 2021.
The City recently received notice a new General Permit for Storm Water Discharges
Associated with Small Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4s) was issued and
becomes effective April 1.
Many of the requirements in the new permit are continuations of past requirements with
minor changes. Permittees are required to maintain a stormwater management program
with the following components:
- Public education program
- Illicit discharge detection and elimination program
- Construction site stormwater management program
- Post-construction site stormwater management program
- Internal pollution prevention operations and maintenance program including
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training
- Stormwater monitoring program
- Stormwater TMDL action plan with associated monitoring
More substantial changes include:
- Lists of passive and active outreach strategies are provided. Each year, the
permittee must implement at least four activities and document using the listed
performance tracking methods.
- Identified high priority outfalls must not equal zero.
- Construction site stormwater violations must be corrected within 14 days, or the
permittee must advance the non-compliant site through the established
enforcement response plan.
- A requirement to assess and document existing ordinances and policies to identify
whether low impact development concepts have been implemented to promote
protection of stormwater runoff quality associated with new and redevelopment
projects.
- If visual inspections of permittee water quality facilities find inadequacies or
required maintenance to prevent the discharge of pollutants, the changes must be
made within six months and if they cannot be done in that timeframe, further
documentation and timelines are needed.
3. Police Department
Five KPD officers attended First Line Supervisor training this week and two KPD
officers attended Basic Crime Scene Processing training this week.
KPD had three officers in field training and one at the Law Enforcement Academy during
the last week. One officer has successfully completed her field training process and is
now able to perform her patrol duties independently. Two officers are currently in their
end phase or “shadow phase” of field training. Finally, one officer is in week nine of
twelve in the Montana Law Enforcement Academy.
Preparations are being made for the next step in the new hire police officer applicant
process. Applicants will participate in a written test, and if they pass that step, they will
progress to the physical fitness (MPAT) test. Lastly, the applicants will participate in an
initial interview with department staff. These tests are components used in the overall
hiring process.
Over the last week, the Kalispell Police Department has received 660 calls for service
and assigned 12 felony investigations to the Investigative Division.
4. Planning Department
The Kalispell City Planning Board will hold a public hearing at their March 8 meeting
and take public comments on the agenda item listed below:
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1. Files # KZC-22-01 and #KPP-22-01 – A request from Quail Meadows, LLC, for a
zoning map amendment and preliminary plat approval for Quail Meadows
Subdivision, a major subdivision containing 39 single-family lots on
approximately 10.01 acres including the lots, roads, and open space. The zoning
map amendment request would change the zoning from R-2 (Residential) to R-3
(Residential). The property is located at 155 Tronstad Road.
Documents pertaining to the agenda item is 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.”
The Kalispell City Council will be holding a public hearing March 7 on proposed
Floodplain Management Ordinance updates. The existing Floodplain Management
Ordinance (Ordinance No. 1761) was based on the 2014 DNRC model floodplain
regulations. In 2021, the DNRC issued a revision to the 2014 model regulations which
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. The Council will take formal action on the proposed updates at their
March 21 meeting.
5. Building Department
In the last 2 weeks, we have issued permits for 3 single-family homes. That will bring the
total of new single-family/duplex and townhouse units for the year to 27, compared to 32
last year at this time.
There have been 24 multi-family housing units issued so far this year, which is the same
as last year at this time.
There was a total of 185 combined building and/or fire inspections completed in the last 3
weeks.
Residential – 34 Plumbing – 18
Commercial – 15 Mechanical - 18
Electrical – 12 Fire – 88
6. Community Development
Kalispell’s “Core and Rail Redevelopment” has been selected to receive an Honor Award
in the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) 2022 Engineering
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Excellence Awards (EEA) competition.
7.Information Services
IT and GIS staff continue to monitor the map services from the ArcGIS Enterprise system
to determine if the maps “not loading” issue was resolved with additional resources
allocated to the servers two weeks ago.
IT staff are preparing to replace the website security certificate for the following City
websites.
-water billing customer site
-Cityworks permitting and public permitting sites
-ArcGIS enterprise portal & maps
-finance management system
-utility billing system
IT staff are going through proof-of-concept training to configure the existing IT client
management and inventory asset system with deployment and patch management
modules. The deployment and patch management modules are accessible through trial
licensing.