Council to vote on airport funding

Once again, and for the anticipated final time, the Kalispell City Council tonight will tackle the proposed sale of $2 million in tax increment urban renewal revenue bonds to finance a project to expand and improve the Kalispell City Airport.

Improving the airport has long been a city project, and the

proposed bond sale has been the subject of much council and public discussion.

The council most recently tabled the issue at its March 21 meeting due to some members' concern over the funding method. The council considered alternative funding methods at a March 28 work session but did not come to any consensus.

"We have to do something to improve the airport and make it more user-friendly and safer," City Manager Jim Patrick said of the $2 million project.

The bond sale would fund phase one of what is a three-part plan to improve and expand the city airport. The initial phase calls for building a new ramp and taxiway, constructing a new access road and adding security fencing.

Phase two would replace the existing runway. Phase three would add more parking spaces and businesses, such as a refueling center, to the airport.

Each stage involves numerous smaller projects and requires land acquisition for needed space.

The Federal Aviation Administration two years ago approved the plan. Under current rules, the FAA would be expected to reimburse the city for 95 percent of most of the costs incurred for the project, said airport manager Fred Leistiko.

The total project cost is estimated at $7.4 million.

However, the FAA will not begin reimbursing the city until the KGEZ radio towers are relocated. The towers would have to be relocated for safety reasons as part of phase two. The initial phase can be completed without the towers' removal.

And the city has the money to cover the bonds even if the towers never came down and the city never got any FAA money, Leistiko and Patrick have assured the council.

"We're not overextending ourselves by any means or endangering the taxpayers," Patrick said.

Some council members and members of the public at past meetings have been skeptical of the plan in general and specifically about selling bonds for the project.

The Flathead Business and Industry Association has been a vocal opponent to the project. The association and other members of the public contend that the city needs to ask the public how it wants to use that land and that an alternative use would serve a greater number of people than a small airport.

The council, however, believes that past councils did a sufficient job of determining the value of an airport to the city in that location.

Some members of the public and a few council members also have said they simply don't think the math works out to pay for the bonds, but the city manager is convinced it does.

The city's bond counsel wouldn't let them sell bonds Kalispell couldn't retire, Patrick said. The airport tax increment fund generates $284,000 a year now and will take in more money as the district sprouts more development and construction in coming years, Patrick said.

Other people have said this council should stick with past councils' commitment to put $1 million toward the plan and shouldn't exceed that figure. The city won't end up paying more than that amount once the FAA reimburses Kalispell, Leistiko and Patrick said.

The business association has said the council shouldn't put any more money into the project because the FAA money isn't guaranteed until the towers come down, and that may take years.

The city wants to see the KGEZ towers come down so it can proceed with the final two phases and receive FAA money, Patrick acknowledged. But past negotiations with the station have failed. The city now is focusing on the initial phase before it resumes its efforts to purchase the towers, Patrick and Leistiko said.

"However, we still have an airport," Patrick said, and need to maintain it.

The first phase is one that has enough merit that the city will benefit from it even if phases two and three never come to fruition, Leistiko said.

But he, Patrick and others on the City Council and in the aviation community have said they're confident the KGEZ tower issue will be resolved and Kalispell will receive money from the FAA to pay for the $2 million bond.

The City Council will vote on the issue during tonight's meeting, which starts at 7 in City Hall. The bond sale is the first item on the agenda.

Reporter Camden Easterling can be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at ceasterling@dailyinterlake.com