City may pay $2.3 million for Kidsports

The city of Kalispell may step up to help the Kidsports youth athletic complex and pay roughly $2.3 million to buy a permanent easement for the heavily used sports fields built on school trust land along U.S. 93.

At a work session Monday, City Council members agreed to consider footing the entire bill and paying it by year’s end.

If that course is approved, Kalispell would target its airport tax increment finance district, which is budgeted to generate $560,000 in available revenue this fiscal year and end it with a $2.275 million balance.

“We should have close to that [$2.3 million] available within the airport TIF fund,” Kalispell City Manager Doug Russell told the council.

That would give Kidsports its long-sought permanent home. In exchange, Kalispell would task the nonprofit organization — an umbrella organization for several youth sports — with raising money to pay for needed, but yet-to-be-determined improvements such as more playing fields, more parking and better access into and out of the sports complex.

City Council members said Kidsports is one of the Flathead Valley’s strongest economic assets, and agreed that Kidsports and Kalispell have worked together exceedingly well for 15-plus years.

Kidsports’ soccer, softball, baseball and football fields and cross country track host regional tournaments and draw thousands of young athletes and their families to Kalispell every spring, summer and fall.

Last weekend, Kidsports hosted the Montana AA state soccer tournament.

“Our economy needs things like this to attract people from outside to come and spend their money here,” council member Jeff Zauner said. “I could support doing something like this. I think this gives Kidsports capital to leverage to help with their build-out.”

That view was shared by other council members and by Dan Johns, director of Kidsports. “This can be a lot more than just acquiring a permanent easement. It can be one giant leap toward finishing the project,” Johns said.

After several years of negotiations involving Kalispell, Kidsports and the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, the State Land Board two weeks ago approved a memorandum of understanding laying out terms for the permanent easement.

The cost of the easement is roughly $2.3 million, or $18,515 an acre for 123 acres of land, and the State Land Board is offering five years to raise the money needed with a first payment due by year’s end. The state also would charge an annual fee of 1 to 2 percent of the total balance unpaid.

Buying the permanent easement with one payment up front instead of with multiple payments over the next five years could save up to $400,000 in fees and otherwise unnecessary lease payments, said Justin Sliter, treasurer of Kidsports. “That would probably build seven ball fields,” he said.

Council members and Kidsports representatives agreed a number of improvements are needed at the site.

More sports fields are needed. More room for parking is sorely needed, with more cars than ever expected showing up on game days. So is better access in and out of the facility, with traffic often backing up at the only entrance and exit off Four Mile Drive.

In exchange for Kalispell buying the permanent easement, Kidsports would agree to raise money to improve the facility.

“Essentially we need to work with Kidsports to come up with a [memorandum of understanding] that says what each party agrees to do,” Russell said. “As soon as we get a potential agreement, we’ll try to bring it back [to the council], hopefully at the second meeting in November.”

KIDSPORTS currently leases 134 acres of school trust land from the state. It entered a 40-year lease for that land through the city of Kalispell in 1996 and makes the $43,000 annual lease payment.

Without the permanent easement, Kidsports faces a mandatory midlease reappraisal in 2016 that threatens to make its lease payment unaffordable, potentially doubling or even tripling the annual payment because of extensive commercial development that has driven up land values in the area.

When the airport tax increment finance district was created, one major goal was to relocate sports fields away from the city airport at the south end of town, Russell said.

Kalispell gave Kidsports $1 million from land sales to start. Kidsports has since raised money to develop 30 sports fields. That includes Miracle Field, Montana’s only adaptive field for athletes with developmental disabilities.

Kalispell is the lease-holder for the Kidsports facility and budgets about $140,000 a year to maintain it. The city also would own the land if a permanent easement is bought.

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