Kalispell voters to decide on kitchen site

Kalispell voters will decide in May whether Kalispell Public Schools can purchase a new site for its central elementary kitchen.

The district has negotiated an offer on a half-acre lot at 33 Meridian Court but cannot complete the deal until voters in the elementary district approve the purchase.

The Kalispell school board voted Tuesday to put the sale on the May 4 ballot.

If voters reject the request, the district will have until May 15 to back out of the agreement without losing its $1,000 earnest money, John Osweiler told his fellow trustees.

Osweiler and trustee Alice Ritzman, both local real estate agents, have volunteered their expertise to help the district find an appropriate central kitchen location. Neither is involved with the sale and neither is receiving compensation from the district.

The existing kitchen at Flathead High School has health and safety hazards that have kept the district in close communication with the Flathead City-County Health Department.

School officials have said that the kitchen passes inspections in part because the health department knows the district is searching for a new site. Should the search stop, the health department might be less lenient.

Trustee Rick Davis said Tuesday that the existing kitchen is unacceptable.

“I can’t see us continuing having our children eat food out of that cellar,” Davis said. “I think we should do better as a community. And I hope the community supports us.”

The community will choose whether to support the district’s $345,000 offer on the Meridian Court property, which includes a 3,040-square-foot warehouse.

Money for the purchase has been set aside since 2005 when the district allotted about $350,000 for a kitchen as part of Kalispell Middle School’s remodeling.

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.

Some trustees worried Tuesday that voters might get the wrong impression if the property acquisition request appears alongside an elementary levy request during the election. The district faces a more than $600,000 shortfall in its 2010-11 elementary budget and will ask voters to approve a levy.

The board will set the levy amount at its meeting March 23.

Because the money for a kitchen already has been set aside, the property acquisition request on the ballot won’t cost voters any extra money. And the funds the district would use to buy the property cannot legally be used to balance the general fund budget.

With property prices lower than they have been in recent years, now is a good time to buy, Osweiler said.

“Really, you are able to buy more for your dollar in this market right now,” he said.

Superintendent Darlene Schottle said the district has been looking for a new central kitchen for longer than the seven years she has been in Kalispell.

“What we’re getting for this amount of money ... this is quite, from my perspective, a good deal,” she said.

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