09-29-17 City Manager ReportfTYOF ira - City of Kalispell
- _is, OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER
- 1A OVA
Information Memorandum
9/29/2017
1. Parks Department
Kalispell Parks and Recreation is excited to announce our first ever outdoor movie night
on October 20, from 7-1Opm at Woodland Park (field west of Woodland Water Park)
with a showing of Ice Age- Collision Course. This event is free to the public thanks to
our sponsors; Parkside Credit Union and Radiance Tanning Studio.
Dates for Running Rascals Football and Fall Into Soccer were pushed
back due to the air quality and unforeseen closures to schools and sporting
programs. On Friday, September 22, Kalispell Parks and Recreation's
first Fall Into Soccer program started with a total of 142 participants.
Running Rascals started on Saturday, September 23, with a total of 63
participants.
The Begg Dog Park grand opening took place on September 17. The
ribbon cutting ceremony was attended by Jerry Begg, whose mother
donated the land to the city in 1985. Paws to Play, along with Parks Director Chad
Fincher, made speeches commemorating the event. NMAR awarded a grant of $3,500.00
to Paws to Play to be used to build and install a
footbridge from the parking lot to the west gate.
The Depot Park restroom is in the process of receiving a
new coat of paint. Over the years, the stucco building
had been vandalized numerous times by vandals
puncturing the stucco.
Park staff have begun work to improve the showers at the Woodland Water Park. Park
staff will frame in the shower, then a plumber will move the center shower fixtures to the
walls, after which park staff will finish up by tiling the facility.
The Forestry department is currently advertising for an arborist position.
Twenty trees are being removed or pruned as part of a forestry contract.
2. Public Works
The 4th Ave E Water Replacement Project is currently ahead
of schedule. Most, if not all, of
4th Ave E will be open to
traffic this upcoming week.
All water main work and
paving has been completed.
The contractor is working to
finish sidewalks, signage, landscaping, and crosswalk striping.
Signage is in place to turn the street over to two-way traffic upon
opening the street.
The Sand Shed Replacement Project at the City shops was completed in August of this
year. The new sand shed will store the winter salt/chip mixture, cold mix, and 3/4" crush
used for backfill on water/sewer main breaks.
3. Building Department
Eight single-family building permits were issued in the past 2 weeks, bringing the total of
new single family/duplex units for the year to 99 compared to 112 last year at this time.
The first of four apartment buildings of the new Lofts at Ashley Apartment complex
located @ 2050 Airport Rd has been issued a building permit. This phase is valued at
approx. $1.2 Million and contains 20 residential units. This places the total number of
multi -family housing units to date at 20 compared to 86 multi -family residential units
(the college housing project) last year at this time.
Harbor Freight located at 2298 Hwy 93 N has broken ground. The shell permit was
issued for this location and the project is valued at $1.3 Million. The new Fairground
bathrooms located at 265 N Meridian are under construction. This permit has a valuation
of approx. $1.1 Million.
4. Planning Department
Staff has begun Phase 5 of our program to rezone the Core Area from B-2 and I-1 to B-3
(Core Area Business) for a 35 acre area with 65 owners. This area is bounded on the
north by Idaho, the east by 7th Avenue, the south by lst Street West and the west by
Meridian. This will be the last phase and will complete the rezoning process. As is our
process, all property owners in phase 5 will be notified by mail and an open house will be
held at city hall on Tuesday, October 10 from 4:00 — 6:00 p.m. prior to a planning board
work session scheduled for November 14.
5. Information Services
IT staff are troubleshooting an issue with a few printers on the system. Large
2
multifunction printers are not affected.
IT staff resolved issues with courtroom microphones not being heard on the recorded
audio files from court sessions. The microphones were loud enough to be heard in the
courtroom but the recorded sessions were not picking up all the microphones.
Functionality has been restored and all the courtroom microphones can now be heard on
the recorded sessions.
The ESRI map server software version upgrade is underway. The map server software
must be upgraded to move the map database to the new database server. The finance and
utility billing system is being moved to a new server.
Remote sites and field computers have been updated to the latest antivirus version.
6. Human Resources
The annual Employees Health Screening was recently held at the Hampton Inn and
Kalispell City Hall. We had 136 of 193 eligible employees (just over 70% participation)
and 58 spouses attend this year. The health screening is designed to target five (5) pre-
established personal health improvement goals set by Montana Municipal Interlocal
Authority (MMIA). These targeted goals included targeted Body Mass Index (BMI),
Blood Pressure, Cholesterol and Fasting Glucose. MMIA and member cities are striving
to help improve employee and family members' health, which in turn helps to reduce
health insurance usage.
HR staff attended Flathead Job Service Employer's Committee (JSEC) board meeting.
According the Job Service manager, unemployment in the Flathead is now at 3.9%, which
is below the national average of 4.4%. They currently have over 1200 job openings.
Some employers are now beginning to raise their entry-level wages in an attempt to attract
employees.
7. Community Development
The work at Kidsports/Kalispell Youth Athletic Complex funded by a Montana Youth
Recreational Facilities Grant is wrapping up this week. The $1.4 million grant funded
necessary infrastructure for seven new multipurpose playing fields and additional parking
at the north end of the existing facility. The grant work will conclude this week.
Additional work that is required to finish the fields and amenities will be completed by
Kidsports in the coming year with fields projected for play in spring 2019.