Kalispell accepts federal funding for river repairs

Kalispell will tap up to $424,970 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to repair stretches of riverbank damaged by spring flooding on the Stillwater River.

The Kalispell City Council voted 9-0 to accept the federal funding Monday night.

The city has targeted seven riverbank sites for stabilization and erosion control improvements along Buffalo Hill Golf Course and Lawrence Park.

City Manager Jane Howington told the council that potential funding from the state may or may not materialize and that the required local match for the grant is still “a little nebulous right now.”

Some of that local match could come from in-kind labor and emergency repairs already completed.

“We believe almost all of the work we can provide will qualify, but don’t want you to leave thinking that’s a completely done deal,” Howington told the council, suggesting that cash could come from a special fund for parks and recreation if needed.

Targeted repairs include a site near the No. 7 tee where the bank was improved this past March with riprap, soil lifts and willow plantings at an estimated cost of about $100,000.

Some of those improvements washed away just days after they were made because the willows could not take root before flooding that started in April and continued through July.

But the improvements helped the bank hold.

The fear is that a breach there or in a second location targeted for repair downstream could create a new river channel running through the middle of the golf course, city officials have said.

THE COUNCIL held the first reading of an ordinance to redraw the city’s four council ward boundaries using block-by-block population counts from the 2010 Census.

The first reading passed with a 9-0 vote in support of the proposed ward boundaries.

The city’s population grew by more than 5,700 people over the last 10 years. That growth wasn’t spread equally among the four wards, requiring them to be redrawn to be “as nearly equal as possible” in population.

Planning Director Tom Jentz told council that Ward One in the west and Ward Four in the south saw the most growth. “Some boundaries shifted but we tried to maintain the integrity of the wards,” he said.

The proposed boundary shift puts the home of Ward One council member Bob Hafferman in Ward Three. If Hafferman decides to pursue another term, he will have to run for re-election in that new ward.

THE COUNCIL ALSO voted 9-0 to adopt an ordinance expanding the boundaries and goals of the West Side Urban Renewal Plan.

The plan lists a number of goals to correct instances of blight identified in the expansion area, a 1.3-mile block of land that includes the Flathead County Fairgrounds and runs along the railroad tracks from Seventh Avenue West to the eastern city limit.

In early December, city officials will hold a series of open houses for property owners in a Core Revitalization Area at the heart of that expansion area.

The hope is to flesh out the urban renewal plan and potential projects and development concerns with more public input — a process that could wrap up by February or March.

“The plan will give us ideas for two, three, five, 10 years from now on what we want our direction to be and what we are building,” Jentz said.

On a separate track, potential debt-funded projects in the expansion area are also being explored as a way to possibly expand or extend the life of the West Side Tax Increment Financing District, a funding mechanism that was created to overlay the original West Side Urban Renewal Plan. The TIF is on track to sunset in March.

In other business, the council voted to:

• Accept a $3,890 grant from the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. With an equal city match, the funding will be used to plant 25 trees along residential city streets.

• Approve the purchase of a single axle dump truck with snowplow and sander from Western States Truck Centers in Missoula for $124,865.

• Rezone the National Guard facility on U.S. 93 as P-1 public use following its annexation.

• Set a public hearing on proposed changes to the city’s subdivision regulations for Monday, Dec. 5.

Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.