09-04-15 City Manager ReportC.ITYOF _ City of Kalispell
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OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER
MONTANA
Information Memorandum
9/4/2015
1. Parks Department
The Runnin' Rascals Football deadline was August 21, 2015. This year we have 96
participants registered for the program. This is a 20% increase over last year. We will
start the four week program September 5, 2015, at KYAC.
Summer Day Camp has come to an end. In 2014, we had 49 operating days with 4,329
participants. This year, we had 50 operating days with 4,303 participants. This was a 6%
decrease in participants over the previous year.
Afterschool Program registrations are coming in as school started August 31. This
program is designed to meet the needs of children of working parents. We provide a safe,
creative environment for children in Kindergarten through 5th grade. The Afterschool
Program is held at Elrod and Russell Schools. We are also partnering with School District
95 again this year to provide healthy snacks to participants.
With the wind event on August 21, 2015, we had several days of storm cleanup from
boulevard and park trees. To keep up with the requests for pick up, all park crews were
diverted from park assignments to help assist.
A group of retired Flathead Marines volunteered to assist with removing understory brush
from the hillside at Woodland Park. This is the third volunteer group we have had help
with this project this summer. We continue to look for viable partnerships that can
participate in this project as we have seen a benefit for both citizens and law enforcement
with this effort.
The Forestry Division launched a 50/50 Tree Cost Share program last month by inviting
sixty residents who have been on a waiting list for years to participate. To date six
people have applied and been approved for trees. The first round of planting is scheduled
early next month.
The Lawrence Park Phase II playground installation is now complete. All that remains is
some edging and irrigation realignment due to expansion of the fall surfacing. Parks staff
also completed an extension of the irrigation at Meridian Park for better coverage of the
turf and adjacent right of way. The fall surfacing was also replenished before the start of
school.
2. Public Works
Parkridge Drive Closure
Parkridge Drive, between Stillwater Road and Barron Way, is permanently closed due to
the upcoming Kalispell Bypass Construction. MDT is scheduled to award the bid in
early September and construction will commence by early October.
The closure was scheduled prior to school starting to allow residences, students, and
school buses to develop routes that will be used for the entire year, rather than requiring
changes one month into the school year.
WWTP Fermenter Recirculation Piping Project
On August 17, 2015, Diamond Plumbing & Heating finished the Fermenter Recirculation
Piping Project. The project consisted of the installation of piping to make a connection
between the Fermenter Recirculation line and the existing Secondary Digester Mixer
return line. The contract also called for the installation of a 6" Magnetic Flow meter on
the Fermenter Recirculation return line. The piping project will allow proper draining of
the Fermenter for inspections and will aid in efficient fermenter operations.
Pavement Management
The street division has completed all the major 2015 mill and overlay projects. The
pavement markings (all except the long lines) were applied in-house by the TSS staff.
Long lines are scheduled to be striped along with the chip seal projects. Street crews will
focus on utility patching, pothole patching, and alley paving for the remainder of the
paving season.
3. Fire Department
Since the last update the Kalispell Fire Department have received 220 calls for service
and have conducted 2 outreach trainings.
The fire department has been awarded an Assistance to Firefighters Grant through FEMA
to purchase power lift cots for use on our EMS service vehicles. One of our primary on-
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duty injuries is sprains and strains of backs due to lifting injuries. Based on the average
weight from patients transported, power lift cots will lift 2500lbs or more a day. The
reduction in weight lifted daily is significant and will greatly assist in reducing two major
factors in lifting injuries, frequency and weight. Power lift cots will enable more calls to
be handled without the use of additional personnel and also will allow additional
apparatus to clear quicker when patients on scene have stabilized.
The active shooter kits that were purchased through a 911 Foundation Grant have been
assembled and placed in service. These kits will assist responders in quickly treating
multiple trauma victims.
4. Planning Department
Planning staff met with MDT staff and their engineer, Peccia and Associates, this week to
begin discussions on the courthouse couplet project in downtown Kalispell. In our first
meeting, we discussed growth patterns and projected housing and employment in and
around Kalispell. The purpose was to establish an understanding of where future trips
will be generated. Peccia will then take that information and plug it into a model that will
predict traffic flows out to the year 2040. MDT anticipates presenting those figures to
both the City Council and County Commissioners. These numbers will drive the ultimate
design solutions available to MDT.
Planning staff is also participating in monthly meetings with School District 5 as they
begin the planning process to review existing and long term school capacities and needs
in the Kalispell elementary district as well as the Jr. High and High School district. This
process will include future plans for the new school site recently purchased on Airport
Road.
5. Building Department
The building permit has been issued for the new Popeye's Restaurant that will be built
next to Burger King at the intersection of 18th Street East and Hwy 93 South. The permit
for the Town Pump on West Reserve Drive just east of Eisinger Motors will be issued
within the next week.
Buffalo Wild Wings located at 115 Hutton Ranch Road (the former Sizzler's) has been
completed and will be opening soon.
In recent weeks, there has been an increase in residential building permit activity with 17
permits pending approval. These include 9 single-family homes, 1 duplex, a garage and
6 remodels.
6. Information Services
Governor Steve Bullock signed an Executive Order to create the Montana Information
Security Advisory Council in June 2015. The City of Kalispell IT Director is the local
government representative for MT-ISAC until June 30, 2017. The council will work to
refine security policies, processes and programs to protect business processes and citizen
information.
IT staff replaced two network switches at City Hall for the City servers and various office
staff.
Chip enabled credit card terminals are now at every City office that accepts credit cards.
These offices were trained on processing Apple Pay and chip enabled credit cards
transactions.
The City web server was replaced. Applications for utility billing, finance/accounting
system, and the publicly accessible portion of LaserFiche now use our new web server.
The greatest benefits will be improved speed of internal applications and an enhanced
LaserFiche experience.
7. Police Department
As of September 3, 2015, all of the signs are in place for the Westside Neighborhood
Parking Management Zone. At this point, the Kalispell Police Department has sold 11
permits and issued 43 more to residents in the Management Zone. Through September
11, the Kalispell Police Department will be issuing warnings for violations to help
educate those that park illegally in the Management Zone. After that, we will be issuing
parking tickets for violations. Parking permits can be obtained at the Kalispell Police
Department Monday through Friday between 7:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Students and Staff
permits are $25, cash and checks are accepted. Residents must show proof of residency
by a formal I.D., or with a utility bill in their name to an address in the Management
Zone. Two free permits will be issued for each residence. Additional permits for a
residence will be $25 each.
8. City Clerk/Communications Manager
With the passage of the city budget, all the budget resolutions were processed and taken
to the clerk and recorder for filing. The clerk's office is working with city staff and
elected officials to coordinate registrations for those planning on attending the 2015
Montana League of Cities and Towns Conference in Bozeman, in October.
Media Specialist, Eric Bruer will be videotaping two upcoming training sessions offered
in September and October by the Human Resources Department for future training
opportunities.
Since the last Manager's Report, Facebook likes have grown from 367 to 450. The most
popular post for this time period alerted people to motor vehicle thefts occurring while
victims are in church services. This post received over 108 shares and reached
approximately 7,000 people.
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9. Human Resources
After meeting with Public Works, Parks, and a consultant on respiratory policy, we are
nearing finalization of a respirator protection policy. We are hoping to formally
implement this in mid -September. In the past we have relied on the use of contractors to
perform tasks which required the use of respirators. However, we have found it
increasingly difficult to schedule this along with the additional associated costs.
We have finalized the annual harassment/discrimination awareness training for all city
employees with guest speaker Tam Newby, who is the State's local Human Rights
Investigator. The program will include what is considered harassment and
discrimination, how to report it, and the City's policy related to this.
The annual Flu clinic for City workers and their dependents will be held Oct. 15 from
9:00 a.m. — 11:00 a.m. in the Council Chambers.
MMIA's broker (Alliant) has secured pollution coverage for its member cities, which
includes Kalispell. The standalone policy, through Philadelphia Insurance, will provide
limits of $2,000,000 per condition with a $10,000,000 aggregate limit. There will be no
cost to the city for this coverage.
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