Health department to pay county $180,000 for building work

After gathering more information about how the Flathead City-County Health Department will pay the county for money spent to construct a portion of the third floor of the Earl Bennett Building, county commissioners signed off on a memorandum of understanding related to those payments.

Last month, commissioners declined to sign the agreement until questions were answered. In the end, they didn’t alter the memorandum as it had been presented to them.

They were satisfied with the explanation from County Administrator Mike Pence that the commissioners own all real estate in the county system. Because the health department is a joint effort with the city of Kalispell, a cooperative arrangement is in place for use of the building, as is the case for other offices that operate under interlocal agreements in county-owned buildings, such as the 911 center and the landfill.

When commissioners discussed the agreement in late February, there was some concern about whether the city of Kalispell could lay claim to any building ownership in the event the city-county health department ever dissolved. That isn’t the case, Pence said, because the county owns the building.

The agreement calls for the health department to pay the county the remaining balance of $180,000 by June 30, 2015. The health department already has paid $120,000 of the $300,000 it owes the county.

When the decision was made to add a third floor to the Earl Bennett Building in 2008, the health department didn’t have enough money to build the entire floor and its intent was to construct two-thirds of a floor, Pence said.

County officials at the time decided to pay to shell in the remaining one-third and have that space available for county use. Health department officials said it was possible they would need the additional space in the future, too.

The cost for shelling in one-third of the floor was $342,000.

In the ensuing years, the health department has spent about $100,000 on improvements to the third floor, including building a meeting room, rest rooms and a break room. The department also paid for some electrical work, painting, heating and ventilation work in that third of the floor.

Several county offices have been housed on the third floor of the Earl Bennett Building in the last few years during renovation of other buildings on the courthouse campus.

The health department now wants to use the entire floor, Pence said.

Pence recommended the total payback to the county be reduced to $300,000 to acknowledge the $100,000 the health department already paid for on the third floor, and commissioners agreed.

When the county stops using office space in the building and all the space is used by the health department, the health department also will be charged interest on the loan at the average annual percentage rate the county earned on its investment portfolio during the previous fiscal year, according to the agreement.

The county is currently using space on the third floor for the civil division of the county attorney’s office while the attorney’s office in the justice center is being remodeled.

Both 4-H and agriculture extension offices currently are on the second floor of the Earl Bennett Building, having moved out of the east annex, which is slated for demolition this spring. Those offices are expected to remain in the Earl Bennett Building.

 Reporter Shelley Ridenour may be reached at 758-4439 or sridenour@dailyinterlake.com.