02-16-18 City Manager ReportCity of Kalispell
OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER
Information Memorandum
2/16/2018
1. Parks and Recreation
Park Staff are assembling a 21 foot walking bridge that was purchased by Paws to Play.
The bridge will span across the drainage swell between the parking lot and the dog park
entrance. Crews have also pulled in all picnic tables from the parks, fixing damaged
boards and repainting before placing back out into the park system.
Forestry has completed the pruning of all the trees along 61h
Avenue West. Our forestry crew has been averaging over 25
large trees pruned each week. They have also pruned all the
small trees in the Leisure Heights and the Willows subdivisions.
A 90 tree dead/dying removal contract has also started. These
tree removals are throughout our community.
During the week of February 5, we had a roof leak in the Public
Safety building at the City Court's office and hallway. A
local contractor made the roof repair while park staff replaced
the ceiling tiles damaged by the leak. A contractor has
Removal of a dead
Spruce along the
installed a new counter top, relaminated the existing front Lawrence Park trail.
cabinet, repaired the walls and repainted the front office of the
Parks and Recreation office. Flooring is on order and will be installed soon. We are
working with Flathead High School to bring in a counter top made from a donated Urban
Forestry tree to the existing front cabinet.
We had close to 200 people at our annual
Valentine's Dance at the Linderman Education
Center Gym on Saturday, February 10. This was
the largest attendance in the last five years.
Special thanks to Glacier Bank and J2 Business
Products who sponsored this year's dance and
Teletech who provided volunteers to assist with
the decorating the gym.
Little Squirts Basketball, our preschool basketball
program, started on Saturday, February 10, at Hedges
Elementary and will run for the next six weeks.
Participation is up from both leagues last year (up 7
participants from spring 2017 and 33 participants from
fall 2017). Registration for our Little Dribblers program
(Kindergarten through 2nd grade) closes on February 16
with practices and scrimmages beginning on March 10.
2. Public Works
GPS Tracking for City Equipment
Omnitracs, a GPS tracking unit and program, has been installed and running on all of the
City's garbage trucks since November of 2017. The GPS programs records real-time
locations of the trucks and allows administrative staff to track the daily residential and
commercial collection routes. As calls about collection service are received by the
Administrative Staff, they „
now have the resources to
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respond with detail where
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the trucks are in the route
and the exact time of day
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program reports truck ""k,.' —k—LLN NO
speed, cornering, idling
and general diagnostic
warnings for potential �.e,. C.a �b.oa ob �ns �a. _.° 1.1�- VW-. :III
mechanical repairs. Collection routes will now be analyzed to ensure the most efficient
routes are created in order to sustain a high level of service and improve functions of the
Solid Waste Division for a growing customer base.
Solid Waste Department
The City records and tracks refuse tonnage delivered to the Landfill. In 2017, the City
collected and transported 9,808 tonnage. As a comparison, below is a table with past
annual tonnage amounts delivered to the Landfill. In 2017, the City's residential solid
waste accounts increased by 94. The increase in tonnage over the past year is a
combination of new Residential and Commercial accounts, and an increase in refuse
collected from routine allev clean-up.
Yea
Solid Waste Summar
Year
Refuse
(tonnage)
Year
Refuse
(tonnage)
2008
7,705
2013
8,385
2009
7,310
2014
8,802
2010
7,538
2015
9,118
2011
7,714
2016
9,482
2012
7,779
2017
9,808
2
3. Police Department
Last week, the Kalispell Police Department hosted a Field Training Officer course. This
course is a train the trainer for officers wanting to be training officers for new hires. By
hosting the school, we were able to send seven newer officers to the training free of cost.
Sgt. Ryan Bartholomew, our Field Training Officer program supervisor, handled most of
the arrangements.
On Monday, KPD held an awards ceremony for 2017. Two officers, Jason Parce and
Justin Turner, received life-saving awards for performing CPR on two different
individuals.
Officers O'Neil, Webster, and Clarke, along with Captain Overman attended a three-day
"Traumas of Law Enforcement" class last week in Spokane. The class addressed post -
critical incident emotional survival for law enforcement, officer involved death, officer
suicide, and benefits available to survivors for those lost in the line of duty. A large piece
was focus on policy for line of duty death responses and the effect it has on the team.
4. Fire Department
Since the last update, the Kalispell Fire Department have received 141 calls for services.
Fire department staff are taking part in a fire behavior training this
week that examines the flow path (air travel) of buildings and
how we can control the movement of air and fire to effectively
mitigate incidents faster, safer, and provide for increased life
safety in rescue operations. By constructing and using a basic
version of a home we can demonstrate how fire will travel
depending on factors such as open doors, opened or broken
windows, and also the effects that winds and other variables have
on structures.
The Kalispell Fire Department was awarded a grant from FEC and the Round UP for
Safety program for the purchase and in-service of CO monitors for our operations. These
monitors will be attached to each EMS bag and be utilized by the crews as they are
providing medical care to the community. These monitors will help reinforce treatment
protocols as an additional diagnostic device for patient care and assist us with providing a
safer work environment for our staff.
5. Information Services
IT staff are adding users into the Building Department's Cityworks permitting system on
a beta system. Access for the PW, Fire and Parks staff to electronically approve plan
review for the existing commercial permit system is being developed. Once the test
system is approved and functional, the production Cityworks system will be configured
with the same changes.
A few AV issues have surfaced recently in the Council Chambers. An audio problem
sourced to a bad mic was resolved. Half of the council dais monitors went black during
the Council meeting. The problem was resolved and the monitors are now working.
6. Community Development
Over the past three weeks, the retaining wall on the
southerly portion of the Rail Park was constructed with
backfill to be completed at a later date as the ground
thaws. At this time, the site selected for CHS
relocation is prepared for construction. However, due
to winter weather conditions, no further construction is
expected at the Rail Park until the beginning of April.
7. Building Department
In the last 2 weeks, we have issued permits for two single-family homes. That will bring
the total of new single family/duplex and townhouse units for the year to 7, compared to
6 at this time last year.
The work on the interior has begun on Harbor Freight located at 2298 Hwy 93 N. The
interior project has an estimated valuation of $220,000.
8. Planning Department
The planning board met on Tuesday, February 13. The board recommended approval of
a request from Team Development, LLC, for a major subdivision called Southside
Estates Phase 2. The project, located immediately west of Rankin School on Airport
Road contains 9.6-acres of land and proposes 4 single-family lots and 26 two -unit
townhouse lots for a total of 56 lots. The Board also recommended approval of a request
from Ara Jorgenson for annexation and initial zoning of R-4 for a single-family residence
located at 1373 Whitefish Stage Road. The applicant is proposing to operate a memory -
care group home for up to eight elderly individuals and needed access to the city sanitary
sewer, which abuts the property. This site was the location of the recent county
restoration project using federal funds to restore the sluffing bank down into Village
Greens. That work has been completed and the slope has been certified to be stable.
The Planning Board then continued discussion on the previously continued 324-unit
apartment project on Two Mile Drive called the Crossings at Spring Creek. After much
discussion and public input, the board recommended approval of the annexation of the 15
acre site, initial zoning of RA-2, and conditional use permit approval of the apartment
complex. Primary concerns of the neighborhood involved increased traffic, the
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construction of buildings that were 3 story in size (as compared to the predominance of
two story buildings in the neighborhood), concerns about impacts to the sewer system,
the limited amount of sidewalks in the area, and the impacts to storm water and winter
run off/flooding. The planning board noted that the project will be built to city design
standards which will address the impacts to storm water and sewer, and a traffic impact
study is required to address traffic mitigation measures if the study shows they are
warranted.
Staff is in the process of advertising for a design team to begin design work on the
Kalispell Core Area Trail. Statements of qualification are due on February 22. In light of
that, the Kalispell Trail Crew had their initial meeting on Thursday, February 15. This
24-member steering committee contains representatives of property owners and
stakeholders in the Core Area as well as the greater community whose purpose will to be
a sounding board for the selected design team and staff as well as ambassadors for the
Trail Project. Their next meeting is tentatively scheduled for early May when we
estimate the design team will be on the ground here in Kalispell.
Staff also made presentations to the Daybreak Rotary and Chamber Executive Board this
past week on the status of the Glacier Rail Park and Kalispell Trail.