Council considers fire budget deficit

The Daily Inter Lake

The Kalispell City Council will hold a public hearing tonight on whether to add $130,000 to the fire department's budget to cover a fiscal 2008-09 shortfall.

About $60,000 of the predicted shortfall comes from firefighters using an unexpected amount of "Kelly Days."

A Kelly Day is when a firefighter can volunteer to work extra days for straight pay when shifts are short-staffed. Each firefighter is allowed up to 10 Kelly Days a year under the city's contract with the firefighters' union.

In the previous fiscal year, firefighters worked about $5,200 worth of Kelly Days.

Another $30,000 of the shortfall comes from unexpected ambulance costs.

Kalispell provides a significant amount of the ambulance transportation in Flathead County outside of the city limits.

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

Vote on whether to give the parks department the authority to shut down Woodland Park's skateboard park if problems become unmanageable there. It also will vote on whether to remove the requirement for peg coverings on BMX bikes.

In May, the council split 4-4 on whether to remove the helmet requirement at the skate e park - meaning the requirement still exists.

Vote on whether to annex nine small tracts of incorporated land surrounded by the city. The tracts range from 0.09 to 4.02 acres. The proposed annexations are to remove unincorporated "islands' within Kalispell and clear up confusion over which government or fire department serves them.

Vote on whether to allow the use of a "boot" to immobilize tires on heavy repeat parking offenders.