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02-12-16 City Manager ReportCITYoFAL City of Kalispell 0 PWI �elf n OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER IL I 11ONTANA Information Memorandum 2/12/2016 1. Parks Department The fire suppression system and air compressor at Woodland Water Park has been repaired. During the summer, the dry side of the fire suppression system sustained a leak. Western States Fire Protection used a temporary patch last year until a full repair could be made during the off season. A contactor has completed the removal of 18 dead trees around Kalispell. The City's forestry crew continues to remove dead trees when they are not removing snow from parks and the skating pond. Platt Electric is in the process of conducting energy audits of several city buildings. Switching from florescent light bulbs to LED lights/fixtures has the potential to save the City money on its energy bill each month. It will also help reduce the frequency of replacing bulbs. Most of the cost of replacement maybe covered through a Flathead Electric rebate as well. 2016 Flathead High Cheer Camp was a success with 17 participants, ages 6 and up. The February 6, 2016, event had over 16 cheerleaders and two coaches to facilitate the event that included warm-up relays, stretching, various cheer formations and dances. The day culminated in a halftime performance at the Braves girls' basketball game. The 2016 Glacier High Cheer Camp is set for February 13, 2016, with 16 participants registered. Camp will be held at the Glacier High Gym and will conclude with a halftime performance during the varsity basketball game that day. The 2016 Valentine's Dance will happen this Saturday, February 13, 2016, at the Linderman Education Center from 7:00pm to 9:00pm. KDBR "The Bear" radio station will help us host this family event by supplying the music. The final session of the Learn to Skate program will wrap up Thursday, February 11, 2016. Overall participation this year saw 38 participants, age four to eleven. Little Squirts winter basketball registration has concluded with 75 kids registered to participate on eight different teams. Games will be held at Hedges Elementary and ran on Saturdays from 9:00am till 1:00pm from February 20, 2016, through March 26, 2016. Little Squirts Basketball is a non-competitive introduction to basketball for boys and girls age 4 to 5 years old. They will practice basic dribbling, passing, and shooting skills. Games are once a week and are played for fun and instructional purposes only. 2. Public Works Solid Waste Department The city records and tracks refuse tonnage delivered to the Landfill. In 2015, the City collected and transported 8,703 tons. As a comparison below is a table with past annual tonnage amounts delivered to the Landfill. Yearly Solid Waste Summary Year _ Refuse (tonnage) 2015 8,703 2014 8,965 2013 8,649 2012 8,297 Stormwater Permit Annually by March 1, the city is required to submit a report to the State Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) quantifying all the activities associated with the city's stormwater permit. It's a compressive report describing the annual achievements, updates, records and future goals for Best Management Practices (BMPs) in the Kalispell Stormwater Management Program (SWMP) as required for compliance with the state permit. The report will be submitted to DEQ by next week, and can be viewed on the city website under Public Works/Stormwater. 3. Community Development Kalispell Core and Rail Redevelopment: Flathead County Economic Development Authority has created a new website for community members and developers who are interested in staying up to date on Kalispell's Core and Rail Redevelopment. The site is under construction with much more to come very soon. The link is: http://www.kalispellcoreandrail.com/index.html. 4. Information Services IT staff continues to work on computer builds and will deploy as quickly as possible. The planning for the FY 2017 computer replacements has started in preparation for the budget discussions. IT staff is collecting and analyzing the current phone lines for all City staff and services. 2 The phone list will assist in creating the needs list for a new phone system and the budget estimate. Work on the online payment and credit card systems for City services continues. City applications won't necessarily use the same service for online payments based on different needs and abilities, so multiple options need to be reviewed. 5. City Clerk Planning Director Tom Jentz began the cities portion of the Your Key to the City field day on February 3, for High School students involved in the United Way Leaders of Tomorrow program. Using large maps for visual aids, he helped the students understand the planning and growth issues that affect the city, and explained the changes they will be seeing in the cit y landscape over the next five years as the bypass is >,+ completed, and the Glacier Rail Trail and Core Area development materializes. Fred Bicha and Liz Jones with the Parks and Recreation Department then spoke to the students providing an overview of the responsibilities of their department, and providing advice for success in their future careers. The highlight of the afternoon was a mock council hearing where the students were assigned roles and worked through an issue they had chosen. Mayor Mark Johnson and Councilor Jim Atkinson were on hand to guide the mock Mayor and Councilors, while City Manager Doug Russell, City Clerk Aimee Brunckhorst, and Planning Director Tom Jentz, and United Way staff mentored the mock city staff and public. During the mock hearing, the students gained personal insight into the leadership positions they may someday pursue. The Mayor and City Manager particularly enjoyed reversing their normal roles and became members of the public providing public comment on the issue. 6. Building Department The department continues to provide inspections for the on -going projects such as the Marriott Hotel, Bloomstone Apartments, Kalispell Regional Hospital, Captain's Marine and Flathead County South Campus. In addition, the department is performing annual fire inspections for all day cares, liquor establishments and assisted living and nursing homes in the city. 7. Planning Department The planning board held a public hearing on the creation of a new B-3 zoning classification which is designed to implement the goals of the Core Area Plan. The board recommended unanimously that it be forwarded to council for final adoption. Staff also held a public hearing on a request to extend the new B-3 zoning to a half block area at the southeast corner of US 93 and US 2 in downtown Kalispell currently occupied by Moose's. This request also passed unanimously. The board held work sessions on the proposed TEDD (Targeted Economic Development District) for the Glacier Rail Park and the South Kalispell Redevelopment Plan. Both work shops were in anticipation of public hearings scheduled for the March Planning Board meeting. Planning Staff also attended a meeting with MDT representatives and RPA Engineering concerning preliminary traffic forecasts (current and the year 2040) for traffic associated with the courthouse couplet. These design numbers will ultimately be used to lead the discussion on design concepts for the courthouse couplet and Main Street. These numbers will be presented to the city council in the near future by MDT and RPA Engineers. 0