County considers building needs

By WILLIAM L. SPENCE

The Daily Inter Lake

Looking for long-term solutions to Flathead County's building needs, the commissioners seem to have concluded that something has to go.

During an hourlong workshop on Friday, the commissioners highlighted a list of pressing safety issues and space constraints waiting to be addressed.

For example, the jail needs to be expanded, the county attorney and Justice Court need more room, and the old courthouse is unsafe.

The commissioners also agreed that the downtown Kalispell "campus" - which currently houses the administrative departments, Health Department, and county justice/jail services - isn't big enough to satisfy the long-term needs for all three functions.

Consequently, rather than pursue short-term fixes to existing space needs, commissioners agreed to consider relocating either the administrative functions or the Justice Center to an alternative site.

"I think we all agreed that whatever we do, it has to be a 20- or 30-year solution," County Administrator Mike Pence on Friday. "And if we look out 20 or 30 years, we don't have enough room here [downtown] for everything. So we have to do something else with one of the functions that's currently here."

The Flathead City-County Health Department is set where it's at in the Earl Bennett Building, Pence said. That leaves administration or the Justice Center as candidates for relocation.

The downtown campus "will either be the administration/health center and justice leaves, or it will be the justice/health center and administration leaves," he said. "If we can't agree on that, then we're just spinning our wheels."

The administrative departments include the commissioners, the County Treasurer's Office and Department of Motor Vehicles, the plat room, Clerk and Recorder's Office and possibly the county planning office. The Justice Center includes the Sheriff's Office and jail, the county attorney's office, Justice Court, District Court and Clerk of Court.

County officials are evaluating a number of options to satisfy the diverse space needs, including new construction or buying an existing building.

Expanding or building a new jail would require new construction.

However, new construction might not be the most cost-effective option for the administrative offices, as a recent construction estimate suggests:

On Jan. 12, John Peterson at Architects Design Group told Pence that a new, three-story administration building with about 66,000 square feet of space would cost about $13 million, or $195 per square foot, including design costs and a 10 percent reserve.

"It doesn't seem likely that we'd be able to go for that, so we have to look at other options that don't involve construction," Pence said.

Along those lines, the commissioners on Wednesday toured the Flathead National Forest Supervisor's Office in Kalispell.

The forest office is combining with the Tally Lake district office and moving to a new facility being built on the north side of Kalispell near Glacier High School.

The existing Flathead Forest headquarters building is at the south end of Third Avenue East. It has about 36,000 square feet of space - enough for county administrative offices - and might not require much renovation.

The asking price for the forest building is $2.7 million, according to building owner Scott Hollinger.

Last week the commissioners toured Stillwater Christian School, which is located off FFA Drive, adjacent to the county Weed, Parks and Recreation Department and near the county Road Department.

If the county moved there, Pence said, "we'd essentially be creating another campus south of Kalispell."

Other options that might be on the table but that weren't discussed in detail on Friday include using some of the county fairgrounds parking area for a new building, or swapping the fairgrounds for other property south of Kalispell and using some of the proceeds to pay for any new construction.

"Right now, other than moving the Health Department, we're looking at everything," Pence said.

The county is considering a voter-approved bond to pay for the construction or expansion of the jail facility, as well as for a new county library. However, it's looking for other financing alternatives to pay for any administration space needs.

Reporter Bill Spence may be reached at 758-4459 or by e-mail at bspence@dailyinterlake.com