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01/22/64 SP City Council Minutes'--° SPECIAL MEETING A special meeting of the Kalispell City Council was held January 22, 1964 in accordance with the following notice given and acknowledged. TO THE HONORABLE BOARD _OF COUNCILMEN CITY OF KALISPELL, MONTANA Gentlemen: There will be a Special Meeting of the City Council Wednesday, January 22, 1964, at 7:30 P. M. for the following purpose: Meet with County Commissioners We, the undersigned, being all of the members of .the City Council, do hereby waive notice of the date and purpose of the Special Meeting of the City Council to be held Wednesday, January 22, 1964 at 7:30 P. M., and. consent to the transaction of the above and any other business that may properly come before the Council. ATTEST: H.-J."Hunt T. R. Flynn City. Clerk Mayor Laurence G. Bjorneby Franklyn A. Lenon C.=L. Ellingson William .J. Roberts Chas. G. Jerrow H. V. Turner Vernon M. Homuth Doiel Smyser Marshall Murray City Attorney Mayor Flynn presiding with all Councilmen present. Board of.County Commissioners met with Council on invitation to discuss City -County problems. Items discussed- listed on separate sheet-,.4,attached) Moved by Roberts that regular Council meeting scheduled for February 3rd be -'postponed to February 17th and next regular meeting be held on February loth. Seconded -and carried. Smyser moved that the Mayor and City Attorney be authorized to execute a new lease for -the Airport with Snow Line Tree Company to provide for sub -letting of premises. Seconded and carried. The Council then adjourned. Read and approved as read this loth day of Februar 1964. T. R. Flynn Mayor ATTEST:City Clerk 4 - T The question o£ 'm aintain.ance of Court House grounds vas suggeate?d ass 1n1>a basis of this meeting. 0n May 169 19119 the City an-! ~aunty arrived at an a reemavent on the im- provement and mmmaintainance of the area referred to, This agreement provided in part, that the groundt were to be arranged and maintained by the County© This somewhat parallels our aagree at with the Great Nortfaeraa on Depot Park whereby we have improved and do maintain the area at no coat to the Great Northern, and which agreemznt is still In effect, There is approximately $400.00 to $450.00 of water used each year on the two outside half blocks and the swill inside islands, most of which Is City property. However, this is a 6mall !team when we consider many other county charges which in no way serve the City taxpayer* Also in connection with the Court house grounds, we did furnish, at no charges to the County this year,, approximately $200.00 of now pipe line and ou! new meter at about $200®00* Here are several other Items which merit inclusion its this dismussion. 1963 0 1964 COUNTY VALUATION CITY OF KALISPE;.L $31,5009000 79500,000 0 23`7. of Total We appreciate that tmae County TmreaasurarOs office collects all city taxes as provided by law, and that we do not have to provide for this through our City Treasurero However, Iroasout:z eta City property is paying about 23% of .e.11 County offices, we feel we are paying for this services* 9 - P i - h — N ® ® W - m O - - b w O 9 - - — ® - M - b m GI R and Iw b 4b ® ? There are some areas where the City resident is paying for duplicated serviceso but these are'aaccording to State law and can only be e•hangod ttreaig"I the legislature. One good example, however, is the City Police Depaartr-ant aan d the Sheriffas Department, A city resident Is paying double In this cases,, Recently on one: weekend, our police department arrested and arrainged In f011ce Court several persons on "liquor charges* ak sharp laa*fer pointed out o n7,. City Ordinances could not, apply, so we switched these cases to Justice Court and they county received some $100,00 in fines aroma this one Tzeekend :alone. We had an agreement ,with your board to r y $15.00 per month towards ex"pe7n u of Palmer Christophersons plhone, aatco To our knowledge, this has never been paai i d 3 The I t eamea referred to above 12 aA €�a�oti s� 'ample of how convenient and pro::" i t° - aable it Is for you to have this am as combined office, The City Parke which we have, and which are maintained by city funds. arty a source of enjoyment and ft n to *all people of the area, not ,dust thosa who are within the: city and -,ito contribute taxes for their support* We are not asking for county participation in this, although the low provides for County Parks® SCHOOLS a School. District J45 Flathead County High School- Thesn are district 'schools located within the City of Kalispell, however, as they pay no mill Levies., the city resident is paayin the entire cost of than folle' wingq a3 portion of which rightfully should be shared by the: district. :police Protection Fire Protection Streit Maainta3inaance m a — o — — a - - - - - - - m m u - e m as — — ® o - ® o • ® s -- w ® e ® o w m AMBULANCE SERVICE The City of Kalispell maintains and operates an ambulance, and in the course of this business we handle most all of the Highway Patrol emergencies, A portion of these patrol cases are such that we are never paid. Some cases we are called and the injured party has already been *moved by some other means of transportaat ion, yet we hgv mx ice t . trip, and nvust paw our personnel, as other expenses. We handle as number of people each year who, it developer, are welfare cases and we are not paid for these. Are we, as a CIty9 obligated to take this loss:,, furnishing ambulance service to a major part of the county? Our Police Departaent supplies the radio communication center for the Highway Paitrol for the area. Should we furnish this service for the entire county gratis? RODENT CONTROL $59000.00 - 1963-64 -, raid by City residents -23. or 41150.�0 Section 16-1177 This Section of State law provides for rodent control by inclusion in tha general fund, or a cial lavy on a ricaniture grazing,,and timber lands onl We feel this fefinitely does not belong in general fund, and that the budgt.,t should provide this as a special levy. aE f0 0 0 • ® - - - ® - ® O W O — - W — w r - d ® A Y - - w O m s m o ® Om 0 ve 0w WELD CONJTRCL Sec.. 16-1e17 -Total Budgeat@$21,188.00 City Taxpaayer@ Shaare-23%, $4,375,,N) We believe the law should be: amended exempting city property, as city property was given no voice in the establishment of the Weed Control District" RURAL FIRE PROTECTIOM - Sec. 28a601 to 28o604 Here we have a situation of cities and fire districts who have esataablirtt0f,i�2d Fire Departments and are being levied for their maintaainaance, being further assessed through the county general fund for rural fire protection, What has come to be considered rural fire protection in Flathead County, we believe is as mis-application of this section of the law, as it is evident the wording of the law was for protection of Forest and Farm Res$oLarcea<, in the Flathead, it has been eyed to combat fire �isi Md �� �f'�aA� Wsorts, As we interpret the above sections of the lass, the last section (28-604) takes away practica.xly all of the authority grznted by prec.oa&,.ng quote, 25-604-Lands to wialch Applicable. The provisions- of this act are not applicable to any organized forest protection district or fires district defined in sections 28®101 to 28-129, or any organized fire protection district organized and operating under other legal authority. '1his,aact 6hall apply to all lands NOT PRUrECTED by federal, state, municipal, or private protective agencies organized under the Yaws of the State of Montana. As presently assesavtKellspell taxpayers are contributing 23% of this costs or $1,150.00, We area supplying fire protection to all county buildings in the City limits without any will levy Income to our City Treasury. The same is true Of the Kalispell Post Office to which we supply all services. This is an area Post Offices, not just a City facility. You could also say the same for the three Armory buildings in the City. Speaking of Fire Protection -- This is Boma -what of a sore point with this Council. Last summer, in making annexation of property adjoining our City limits, we were told by these people that they were now receiving city fire rates. We have since advised the Montana Fire Rating Bureau, and the public in general that under no circumstaances, are we going to combat any fires outside our corporate City limits, nor are we going to permit rural fire departments to attach hoses to our water system. To some people this is a cold blooded aattitude, but we are here to administer the business of the city residents and these people have a simple solution to their problem. They have only to come into the City and pay their taxes thcl r nei. hbors are doing,, While we are talking about thiso era: have also the maintaaimmnee of streets bordering the City. Here too, wehave ceas ed to plow snow and rspma r aatreats lying half in and half out of the Clty� Too many people have ,been free load€:ro for too long in this respect. - - - - - - - - - - - - - -, - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - COUNTY SURVEYOR Inasmuch as the County Surveyor is also Road Supervisor for the entire county and no road expenditures are charged to city property, a major portion of the expense of this office should come from the road fund instead of the general fund. - - - — - — - • - - - - - • — - — — — - - - - - • - — — - - - - - - - - - — — as BRIDGE FUND The law does provide for county aide assessment for this purpose, yet we have no bridges within the City of Kalispell. - - - - - -.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - • - - - - - - - - - - - UTILITY COMPANIES ,Just a comment on the Great 'northern Railway Company assessments. I believe we all agree this industry contributes a large amount to county wide revenues© Approximately $300,000.00, I believe, However, it is not commonly known that the City derives very little tax benefit from this source. In 1962-63, we received $734.e93 out of a total of 274,000. paid in Flathead County. This total tax bill may be high but it is not properly distributed as far es the City is concerned. This Is no _fault of any County Officiate however. WELFARE It does seem, sometimes, that because we are in the City of Kalispell, that we are out of the County. This attitude is apparent in handling of some aspects of welfare cases. For instance, we have been advised that if our police department picks up a person, and for instance, finds him to be ill and requiring hospitalization, we mtest pay for his care in the county hospital if he -is -lodged -there,, -Ceztalnl°;7 this is a misunderstanding, for every resident of Kalispell is a resident of Flathead County and entitled to the same treatment that would be given a persc+n under the same condition in Somers, Martin City, or Balls Crossingo • - - - - - - - - - - -. - - - - - - - - - - - - One evening recently, our police department was requested, by the County Attorney, to pick up an elderly person and deliver her to the County Hospital, In complying with this request, our police officer was told at the hospital 0you cant leave her here until we check into this8°. Noce we were just being gonad samaritans running a free taxi. The ledy.wa& left at the hospital.. The point here is, i think, we must realize.as far as welfare is conderned-%- we are all in the County. On some ambulance calls we have made, when bills are submitted, we were told that the county ambulance should have been called. Now, we cannot make a credit Investigation on emergency ambulance calla and we feel if welfare can pay for physicians.. dentists, sand optometrists, then surely they can handle 'na occasional ambulance call also:. We have analized a recent year of ambulance business as follows: Total Calls Emergency % Emergency City 178 so 44% Rural 119 70 607. 29 Rural emergency calls are predominantly highway accidents, and in many cases are non-residents. As such, it is often difficult to collect these accounts„