03-30-18 City Manager ReportCity of Kalispell
OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER
Information Memorandum
3/30/2018
1. Public Works
Central Garage
Central Garage Staff is working with the Police
Department to assemble two new police cars.
The assembly involves running all the wiring
and installation of equipment to outfit the
vehicles with radios, lights, digital video
recording, gps, a prisoner area, and additional
storage compartments. Each vehicle takes 85
staff -hours to assemble. The ability of the
Mechanics to perform this task in house, not
only is a costs saving for the City, but aides the
Central Garage team when performing future
repairs by having the assembly knowledge to
reference.
Traffic Signs and Signals (TSS)
TSS has started the conversion of the City owned street lights to LED fixtures. The City
owns and maintains 454 light fixtures throughout Kalispell. The
first phase of the conversion will replace 81 of the 400 Watt High
Pressure Sodium (HPS) luminaire heads on Meridian and Old
Reserve Drive.
It's anticipated to take up to 5 years to complete the conversion of
all 454 light fixtures. The LED fixtures will provide a 50-60%
reduction in power consumption and are a cleaner light, with less
maintenance, and more life hours. In addition, the City will
receive a rebate for completing the conversation from Flathead
Electric's Energy Conservation Rebate program.
2. Police Department
Officer Garrett Smith visited The Boy Scouts of America Pack 44921 where he gave a
First Aid/First Responder presentation. Officer Smith volunteered his time to a group of
eager Cub Scouts teaching them important life skills that will hopefully give them the
confidence in the future to render aid to those in need.
Four officers are attending the Response to an Armed Intruder Instructor Course this
week. The course is being held in Kalispell and officers will put their learned skills to the
test by teaching a Run -Lock -Fight class at the conclusion of the course. The Run -Lock -
Fight course has been taught to teachers across the nation to help prevent the loss of life
in the event of an armed intruder in our schools.
The Montana Law Enforcement Academy will hold graduation for the 1641h Class of Law
Enforcement Officer Basic Course. Kalispell Officers Rafael Reyes and Tim Cronin will
be graduating after 12 weeks of training. They were both hired in September and are
nearing completion of the Field Training Officer program.
3. Building Department
In the last 2 weeks, we have issued permits for 4 single-family homes. That will bring
the total of new single family/duplex and townhouse units for the year to 13, compared to
15 at this time last year.
The building permit was issued for the new 413's Restaurant (formerly Finnegan's)
located at 660 E Idaho St. The estimated project valuation is $362,000. The permit for
the 2nd (north) building for the Lofts @ Ashley Apartment Complex was issued. It is
located at 2048 Airport Rd. (there are 4 buildings in all). The estimated project valuation
for the north building is $1,618,100. The Certificate of Completion was issued for the
new Harbor Freight located at 2298 Hwy 93 N.
4. Planning Department
The Planning Department held a work session with the council this past Monday in order
to discuss sidewalks/pedestrian connectivity throughout the city. Council discussion
concluded that staff needed to prepare a draft pedestrian plan, as outlined in the Kalispell
Growth Policy that could be used to establish strategies for increasing the community's
non -motorized mobility.
Staff are reviewing applications this spring, which include two large PUD applications
totaling 531 dwelling units and 6 1/z acres of a commercial at the intersection of Three
Mile Drive and W. Springcreek/Farm to Market. Both of the PUD applications are
adjacent to city limits and within the city's annexation boundary. The Planning Board
will be considering the two separate application over the next two months and forwarding
recommendations to the council for their consideration.
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5. Information Services
The redesigned City of Kalispell website launched. Check out www.kalispell.com to see
what's new.
Staff continues to work on adding new content to the website and will be adding a few
new features soon.
Specifically the City now has a Facilities section, where City offices are searchable with
addresses, hours of operation (where applicable) and contact phone numbers:
http:Hkalisi)ell.com/Facilities
The fire department page now shows a recent alarm log where people can view general
information about recent calls: htlp:Hkalispell.com/213/Fire
The police department has a new online form to report a crime for limited types of non -
emergency and crimes that are not currently "in -progress". See
htlp:Hkalispell.com/FormCenter/Police-7/Report-Crime-45 for full details.
The redesigned website is now mobile ready and sizes appropriately for mobile phones or
tablets.
City staff are working with a new vendor to setup a system for online ambulance billing
payments. The service may be available in 30-45 days.
6. Airport
We are finalizing the airport documents for transfer of the management of the facility to
the airport users association according to the terms of the lease approved by council in
December. The transfer of responsibility should be completed in April.
7. Finance Department
Accounts Payable and Payroll
For February, accounts payable processed 151 checks to pay over 300 invoices from 151
vendors. Total amount of accounts payable checks issued was $624,241.61.
Utility Billing
There were 4 new commercial water and sewer accounts set up in February. Two of
these new accounts were changes in ownership, and one took possession from a
contractor.
There were 37 new residential water and sewer accounts set up in February. Most of
these (29) new accounts were changes in ownership. One new residential account was
taking possession from the builder/contractor.
The utility billing clerks processed about 9000 bills for water and sewer service in
February. Water charges for services were about $200,000. Sewer charges for services
were about $380,000.
On February 1, the water department notified (tagged) over 300 customers for past due
accounts. On March 1, the water department notified (tagged) 267 customers for past due
accounts. Over 90% of these accounts made the required payment prior to being shut-off.
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