Decision expected on skateboard panel

The Daily Inter Lake

The Kalispell City Council will vote tonight on whether to create a skateboard park advisory committee.

Several people suggested at a July 14 meeting that such a committee be created.

The committee's proposed makeup would be 15 people with staggered terms of three years, with the majority being Kalispell residents.

Applicants younger than 18 would get priority for two slots. A Kalispell police officer and a Parks Department employee also would serve on or with the committee.

Last week, Mayor Pam Kennedy thought about setting an Aug. 15 deadlines for applicants.

The city staff is tentatively scheduling formal appointments by the council Sept. 2.

A potential early decision that the committee might face would be hunting for a warm-up area for skateboarders waiting to use the skate park.

The committee's proposed creation is prompted by problems with vandalism, harassment, safety, drugs and fighting at and near Woodland Skate Park.

Also at 7 p.m. today, the council is scheduled to:

. Vote on whether to adopt a streets capital-improvements plan.

This is a necessary bureaucratic step before the council can vote on the controversial road-impact-fees proposal. The capital-improvements plan maps out which streets in Kalispell will need upgrades and extra construction.

The biggest and earliest proposed project would be to extend Rose Crossing from Whitefish Stage Road across U.S. 93 to Farm To Market Road during the next five years.

Other proposed improvements and extensions would be to Four Mile Drive, West Springcreek Road, Stillwater Road, Three Mile Drive and Two Mile Drive.

Council member Bob Hafferman is pushing to add a proposed arterial street in the new Willow Creek Subdivision - linking Foys Lake Road and U.S. 2 - to the capital-improvements plan.

The city staff is recommending against Hafferman's proposal, saying it would serve only Willow Creek and not the larger transportation picture.

Road-impact fees are one-time charges that the city government levies against new homes and commercial buildings that are constructed or annexed in Kalispell. The purpose is to help pay for the extra capital costs of providing city services to those new homes and buildings.

. Give a Community Lifesaving Award to Jason Prewitt for his life-saving efforts at a small-plane crash July 19.

. Vote on whether to set Evergreen's sewage-service rates for fiscal 2008-'09.

. Vote on whether to provide a conditional use permit to Northwest Healthcare for put a day-care center for children younger than 2 in the northern half of the building, 200 Conway Drive.