Online signup now offered for city programs

Starting this winter with youth sports programs, the Kalispell Parks and Recreation Department is rolling out an online registration and payment system for interested parents.

That includes beginner ice skating lessons at Woodland Park, with nine-day sessions offered this December, January and February. It also includes youth cheer camps at Glacier and Flathead high schools in January and February and Little Dribblers, Little Squirts and Little Kickers basketball and soccer programs that run through March and April.

Kalispell is offering online registration for pavilion rentals at its parks and 24-hour equipment rentals for things such as horseshoes, disc golf discs and tug-o-war ropes.

The goal is to eventually allow online registration and payment for all other facility rentals and programs like summer day camp, swim lessons and after school care.

“We’ll keep adding programs as we get them put together and all worked out,” said Val Hemsley, the city’s recreation programmer. “Plans are to get as much as we can online as soon as we can.”

Kalispell’s online registration and payment system is being run through a SportSites.com website that people can access through the Parks and Recreation Department web page at the city’s own website (kalispell.com) or links in parks and recreation newsletters the city sends out via email.

Kalispell is charged $2 per online registration up to $6,000 a year, but is absorbing that cost internally for parents. “There’s no extra fee to register online and we haven’t raised prices any,” Hemsley said.

The online system should help save time for parks and recreation staffers who handle an estimated 1,200 registrations a year, limiting the amount of information they have to re-enter into computers and making it easier to assign youths to teams.

“The idea is to be able to make it convenient for the user, and in the same breath, we want to make it efficient,” said Mike Baker, parks and recreation director. “I think it’ll be a real valuable tool.”

Kalispell continues to allow paper registration.

Parents interested in online registration can visit kalispellparksrecreation.sportsites.com/player/homeplayer.aspx.

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