Councilor wants city to consider social gathering restrictions

One Kalispell city councilor wants the city to look into implementing social gathering restrictions due to the surge of COVID-19 cases in the valley.

The Kalispell City Council held a virtual meeting Monday evening via Zoom videoconference with Tamalee St. James Robinson, Health Officer for the Flathead City-County Health Department. For about an hour, St. James Robinson presented updates on the county’s COVID-19 statistics and answered councilors’ questions about the virus in the valley.

According to St. James Robinson’s report, as of Monday there were 727 active COVID-19 cases in Flathead County. St. James Robinson said the average infected person in Flathead County forces five other people into quarantine, and in the school setting, the average infected student forces 10-15 people into quarantine.

“What we’ve seen in the past five weeks is our numbers have grown,” she said. “Every 22 days our numbers of positive cases have doubled.”

She said the public health message seems to have lost traction as many in the public have started to experience “COVID fatigue.” She urged, “everybody needs to help to keep the schools and our business and the hospitals open.”

In light of the Flathead City-County Board of Health’s recent decision not to implement stricter regulations on public gatherings, Kalispell Councilman Ryan Hunter proposed the idea of implementing city-wide restrictions in Kalispell, such as a limit on the size of public gatherings.

“I would certainly support event size limitations, especially, coming into the winter, indoor ones,” St. James Robinson said. She noted earlier in the meeting that health-care facilities in the valley are expected to be overwhelmed if the current trends in coronavirus infections continue while the influenza season also gets underway.

“With… influenza season coming up…it can be really detrimental to our hospital, mixing this with influenza season,” she said.

However, as of the Monday meeting it was unclear what kind of authority the Kalispell City Council would have to implement restrictions like size limits on social gatherings. Hunter requested the Kalispell City Attorney investigate the idea and return with guidance for the council.

Following the public health update, the council considered two action items: a final plat request for a residential subdivision and priorities for the upcoming state legislative session.

The council unanimously approved the final plat request for the Rhodes Subdivision, a two-lot residential subdivision at 362 and 370 2nd Avenue West North. There were no public comments or comments from the council about the plat approval.

The council was also unanimous in approving the city’s platform of legislative priorities, which outlines a uniform set of legislative goals for city councilors and staff ahead of the upcoming state legislative session.

The list of priorities includes support for: a local option sales tax; maintaining tax-increment financing as an economic development tool; streamlining special district legislation; legislation that mitigates the economic impact for increasing regulatory standards for municipalities; legislation that addresses infrastructure needs associated with rapid growth; legislation that provides options to enhance or improve service delivery for the city of Kalispell; legislation that provides effective public resource management; and legislation that supports and facilitates affordable housing.

A few councilors expressed varying opinions about the local option sales tax proposal, but the full list of priorities was nonetheless approved by the council.

The only public comment during the meeting came from former Whitefish City Councilor Katie Williams, who urged voters to support the Flathead Emergency Communications Center special funding ballot initiative that will be voted on for the third time this election.

During the Monday meeting, Councilor Chad Graham proposed the city hold a work session on improving visibility in Lawrence Park, after needles and drug paraphernalia were discovered there last week.

Finally, the City of Kalispell Architectural Review Committee held a virtual presentation of its annual awards, which went to Sunrift Beer Company and The Sherman Building at 343 First Avenue West. This year’s awards celebrated successful rehabilitation projects of historic Kalispell buildings.

Reporter Bret Anne Serbin may be reached at (406)-758-4459 or bserbin@dailyinterlake.com.