07-15-16 City Manager ReportC.ITYOF _ City of Kalispell
OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER
M0 NTANA
Information Memorandum
7/15/2016
1. City Clerk/Communications Manager
The City Clerk's office mailed approximately 247 notices informing owners within the
South Kalispell Urban Renewal District of the public hearing scheduled for July 18,
2016, regarding amendments to the Kalispell Airport/Athletic Complex Redevelopment
Plan (now referred to as the South Kalispell Urban Renewal District Plan). In addition to
the mailed notices, outreach occurred through Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedln.
The City of Kalispell welcome brochure is currently being updated. The brochure is a
popular hand-out at City Hall, and is sent with other literature by the Chamber of
Commerce to those interested in relocating to Kalispell.
The Clerk's office assisted the Building Department with public outreach efforts related
to their new interactive map. In addition to a standard press release and social media
posts, these efforts included contact to the Flathead Building Association, the Northwest
Montana Association of Realtors, and Montana West Economic Development; and
publication of a Linkedln Article about the new mapping tool.
A video showing the Traffic, Signs, and Signals Division using a recently purchased
truck mounted paint sprayer highlighted the new equipment that was purchased to
improve services and save money. In the first three days of posting on Facebook the
video had 609 views.
2. Public Works Department
Street Restoration
Earlier this month, the Street Crew completed the mill and overlay on 5th St E from Hwy
93 S to 1 st Ave E. The block of pavement restoration took two days to mill and overlay,
and a third day for the TSS Staff to replace the pavement markings with the newly
purchased pavement marking equipment.
WWTP Temperature Monitoring for Ashley Creek
Ashley Creek temperature and flow monitoring
began July 1, 2016, as required by the DEQ
discharge permit and the Ashley Creek
Temperature TMDL. Temperature and flow
monitoring is required to take place annually
from July through September for 3 to 5 years
(dependent on DEQ's review and approval of
the monitoring results).
3. Parks and Recreation
Summer Camp participation numbers for week 5 are the highest
of the summer with 491 out of 500 spots filled (the Tuesday
through Friday sessions were completely full). Campers will be
heading to the Whitefish Mountain Resort and Les Mason Park
for field trips on Wednesday and Friday this week.
We had 244 people attend Red White & Blue Day on July 4, 2016, at the Woodland
Water Park. Swim lessons also saw a major increase in participation from Session 1 to
Session 2 (190 swim lessons compared to 122).
We are partnering with the Summit Medical Fitness Center to host the Kids Triathlon on
July 16 at Woodland Park. We currently have over 60 kids registered but are expecting
between 110-120 participants on race day.
We had a great turn out for Picnic in the Park on Tuesday
evening, July 5, with the Mike Murray Band. Unfortunately,
we had to cancel the event the following day due to rain.
Andre Floyd & the Mood Iguanas will perform on July 12, and
the band One Less Karen will perform on July 13.
UK Soccer Camp started this week and will be using the soccer fields at KYAC. We
have 64 participants registered with 5-7 coaches from UK soccer that will be staying with
host families.
Our second session of Sports Camp kicks off July 18 with 33 kids registered for the
program (21 kids in Pee Wee and 12 in Mini Sports Camp). We also have 12 participants
signed up for Skyhawk's Sports Camp on July 18, and 17 participants signed up for
Cheerleading Camp starting on July 25.
The Woodland Water Park now has chairs and new inner tubes to make user visits more
2
enjoyable and comfortable.
Work has begun on Kalispell's Urban Forest Management Plan. Community Forestry
Consultants from Spokane have been selected to complete the plan. The plan will take
six months to complete. The first phase will be analysis of Kalispell's 8,000 park and
right of way trees followed by community engagement, interviews with stake holders.
Park crews are repairing ceiling tiles in the Woodland Water Park boys' locker room that
were damaged by a ruptured sprinkler line.
Park staff have been reviewing the current well at KYAC with engineers and consultants
to determine if it will be able to meet the demands of the complex expansion.
The Artist and Craftsman of the Flathead held their annual three-day Summertime Art
and Craft Show at Courthouse West Park, July 8, 9 and 10. The group hosted 69
vendors. ACF have supported improvements to Courthouse Park over the years. This
year, they purchased a new picnic table complete with a plaque.
4. Human Resources
HR has tentatively scheduled a supervisor's drug and alcohol awareness training for
September 15, 2016. with the company (Chem -Net Consortium) who performs our
testing of employees. This four-hour training program teaches supervisors to identify
circumstances and indicators that may create reasonable suspicion that a driver is using or
under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The city performs pre -hire, random and
employees suspected of being under the influence of its safety sensitive positions, such as
all our DOT Commercial operators.
The Montana Municipal Interlocal Authority (MMIA), Montana League of Cities &
Towns (MLCT) and Montana Local Government Center (LGC) has announced its
upcoming Regional Trainings and District Meetings for Municipal Officials. The nearest
location is on August 30, in Columbia Falls. Meetings are from 9:00 - 4:00.
5. Community Development
Brownfields Grant Manager, Stephanie Shen, will be in Kalispell on Tuesday, July 19, to
conduct a site visit. The City of Kalispell currently holds an EPA Brownfields Revolving
Loan Fund grant and was recently awarded an EPA Brownfields Assessment Grant for
which implementation will begin in the fall.
6. Planning Department
The planning board met on July 12 and approved three requests which will be forwarded
to the city council for final action at the August 7 council meeting. Those requests
included:
A request from Dengar Properties for a conditional use permit for an accessory casino
at 1250 Highway 2 West (Tree Frog Tavern). An accessory casino had been
approved there several years ago but never utilized. An accessory casino is limited to
20% of the floor area of the primary use, screened from view of the primary use and
patrons and contains no outside signage. No public comment was received.
A request from Mann Mortgage, LLC to annex a 4.45-acre parcel into the city and
zone the land B-2 (General Business) upon annexation. The parcel is located at 837
West Reserve Drive, just east of the new Town Pump.
A request from Montana Chip Partners for annexation and initial zoning of I-1 (Light
Industrial) for a 15,472 square feet portion of a piece of land currently owned by
Kraig Trippel. This site will be added to the mini storage project now under
construction by Montana Chip Partners just east of West Meridian on the old
Weisman's recycling site. In a related application that will come before the council
in the future, Kraig Trippel will purchase (trade) an equal sized parcel of 15,472
square feet from Montana Chip Partners and square up his property which is located
outside the city limits.
Staff made a presentation to the Kiwanis Club on the Core Area Plan and Rail Park.
7. Building Department
The building department has issued 6 more single-family permits in the past 2 weeks.
This brings the total of new residential units for 2016 to 82, keeping us well ahead of
2015. On the commercial side, we have had the following permit applications submitted
for review:
• Fuel Fitness - a 14,000 sq. ft. sports gym located just east of Fat Boy's on Hwy 2
W — $1.7 million valuation.
• Flathead County South Campus to Earl Bennett Building - Sky Bridge —
$620,522.
• Flathead County Health Department — Earl Bennett Building remodel —
$425,000. Related to completion of south campus building and relocation of
some services from Earl Bennett building to South Campus building
• Herberger's expansion — 40,000 sq. ft. addition
8. Fire Department
Since the last update, the Kalispell Fire Department has received 148 calls for service and
has conducted 1 outreach training with approximately 25 individuals in attendance.
The State of Montana supports six Regional Hazardous Materials Response Teams
(RHMRTs) which are staffed by fire departments across the state. One of these teams is
staffed by Kalispell Fire Department Hazardous Materials Technicians.
E
A key component of Hazardous Materials response is the ability to provide medical
treatment to civilians as well as other responders who may have been exposed to
hazardous materials. To address this issue, the RHMRTs have adopted the National Fire
Academy's Advanced Life Support for Hazardous Material Incidents curriculum and
obtained grant funding to supply these personnel with the tools to provide Advanced Life
Support patient care in these situations. The grant was sponsored by the City of Billings
whose HMRT took responsibility for purchasing and distribution of the equipment. The
grant total for all six teams amounted to $347,932.81, which results in roughly $58,000 in
equipment for Kalispell's HMRT.
In the past weeks, Kalispell HMRT has taken ownership of the grant funded materials to
outfit the "Toxmedics" so that they may be able to fulfill their role of ALS provider to
those suffering from the toxidromes of hazardous materials exposure. Toxidromes are a
set of signs and symptoms related to specific types of hazardous materials. Advanced
monitoring capabilities as well as specific toxidrome antidotes are included in the new
tools, equipment, and medications now available to the RHMRTs.
9. Police Department
On June 17, School Resource Officers Cory Clarke and Chad Fetveit taught a Run, Fight,
Lock class to approximately 70 staff at Flathead Valley Community College.
School Resource Officer Cory Clarke is assisting in the Montana Junior Police
Leadership Academy training put on by the Montana Association of Chiefs of Police.
This one -week class is offered to qualifying high school students across the state and
focuses on teaching leadership, responsibility, and general information about the police
profession. This year's class consists 26 students, four of which are from Kalispell.
5