Schools eye Meridian Road site for new kitchen

After meeting with a consultant to discuss relocation options, Kalispell Public Schools officials still think a warehouse off Meridian Road is the best location for the district’s new central kitchen.

The school board at its regular meeting Monday told district officials to continue pursuing the property at 33 Meridian Court, in the hope that the half-acre lot someday could house the elementary central kitchen.

A 3,040-square-foot warehouse on the lot could be remodeled and expanded to hold the kitchen.

A consultant with Bozeman-based H-C Design and Consulting met with Kalispell schools officials in late January to discuss the district’s options for relocating the kitchen from Flathead High School.

Options included remodeling the former Laser School (which now houses the district’s auxiliary services) or putting a kitchen at the Linderman Educational Center.

Neither is feasible, district clerk Todd Watkins told the board. Not only would the necessary remodeling be too expensive, but old Laser and Linderman are high school properties, so they cannot be used to house an elementary kitchen.

The existing kitchen is at a high school property, but it used to serve Flathead High in addition to the elementary schools, Watkins said. Flathead’s food court has supplanted the school’s need for a kitchen, so the space now is used only for elementary food preparation.

That’s just one reason the district wants to find a new location for the kitchen. The kitchen at Flathead High has health and safety hazards that have kept the district in close communication with the Flathead City-County Health Department.

“It’s a day-to-day event whether we survive the health department review,” Watkins said.

He recommended the board continue to pursue the Meridian Court property, which has an asking price of $369,000. Kalispell Public Schools has $400,000 set aside for a new kitchen.

The district allotted about $350,000 for a kitchen when remodeling began at Kalispell Middle School in 2005. Officials ultimately decided against putting the kitchen there because of the potential safety hazard posed by delivery trucks driving with students in the area — which also is a concern with the existing kitchen’s location.

The money has accrued interest over the years, and now the district has more to spend on a new kitchen. Kalispell Public Schools eventually could choose to sell the old Laser property on East Washington Street and use the money from that sale to expand the Meridian Court property or purchase adjacent lots.

There are 2.5 acres just south of the lot, trustee Alice Ritzman explained to the rest of the board Monday.

She and trustee John Osweiler, both local real estate agents, have volunteered to help the district find a new site for the kitchen. Neither is receiving compensation from the district.

If Kalispell Public Schools could purchase the half-acre lot directly south of the Meridian Court warehouse, it possibly could expand the kitchen in the future, Ritzman said. If the district could get the whole site, it potentially could relocate other services to Meridian Court.

Those services could include a bus repair shop and bus barn — Kalispell Public Schools doesn’t have a bus barn and parks all its buses on leased land at Legends Stadium. Auxiliary services potentially could move to Meridian Court as well, freeing the district to sell the old Laser School.

Those options are in the future, however; the district doesn’t have funding to do everything now.

Even moving now might not be the best option, Ritzman acknowledged.

“Now isn’t the best time to be thinking about spending money,” she said. “But then again, look at the costs.”

Property costs are lower than they were a few years ago, which makes this a good time to move, board chairwoman Anna Marie Bailey said.

“The money was set aside years ago and now property is down,” she said. “We are being fiscally responsible.”

Moving sooner rather than later is a good idea considering the existing kitchen’s hazards, trustee Tom Clark said.

“At some point, the health department will stop being so lenient,” he said.

Watkins said that as long as the district is actively pursuing a new kitchen location, the health department will continue to work with the district.

Kalispell Public Schools  must get approval from elementary district voters before it can actually purchase the property.

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.