County’s new North Complex building opens on North Main

Flathead County on Monday opened its newest building that serves to house four county departments.

The Flathead County North Complex includes the offices for the Flathead County Treasurer, Superintendent of Schools and Family Court Services, and following the primary election in June will be home to the Flathead County Elections department.

The county undertook a roughly year-long construction project to turn the former CenturyLink building located on North Main Street near the U.S. 93 and U.S. 2 intersection in Kalispell into county offices.

“This is a showcase building for the county,” county Administrator Pete Melnick said. “It’s a great spot for these departments and creates a much better customer experience.”

The final cost for the project was roughly $6.6 million, which includes engineering and design, along with construction and moving costs. Of the total, about $600,000 was used to create a new 911 backup center in the basement of the building.

The county purchased the building in July 2020 for $720,000.

Martel Construction served as the general contractor and Cushing Terrell was the architect for the remodel of the 18,700-square-foot building. The mountain modern design uses gray wood tones and white brick offset with black accents on both the outside and inside of the building.

The construction project wrapped up within about 10 days of estimated completion, which Melnick noted as an impressive feat considering factors happening during the construction. He credited the contractor, architect and City of Kalispell with assisting in meeting that timeline.

“This building was overhauled in the midst of complex issues including the pandemic, along with supply chain issues and a labor shortage,” he said.

THE THREE departments making the move now had been housed in the Courthouse West building and the Election Department is located on the second floor of the South Campus Building.

The addition of a fifth district judge for Flathead County District Court, along with growth in the county, drove the need for expanded office space. The county has to have office space for the new district judge and staff ready by Jan. 1, 2023.

The county operates two courts — justice court and district court. To make space for the new district court judge in the county’s Justice Center, Justice Court will move to Courthouse West. Then the Justice Court space will be remodeled for the new district court judge.

The North Building includes space for future growth with four offices currently sitting empty. Melnick said the county will continue to work through its budget and monitor growth to determine how best to utilize those spaces.

INSIDE THE Flathead County Treasurer's office on Wednesday, staff members were busy waiting on customers. The treasurer's office includes the motor vehicle, property tax and accounting departments.

The move to the new building allows for a much larger seating area than in the office’s previous location for those waiting at the treasurer’s office.

County Treasurer Adele Krantz said the new space is a large improvement, providing for a more clear path for those looking to access the department’s services than in its previous location.

“This is great for our customers because there’s a lot more space,” Krantz said. “It’s great for staff, too, as they can spread out with more room. This flows so much better than what we had before.”

The North Complex includes ample storage space, two large multipurpose rooms, a separate entrance for Family Court Services, and both indoor and outdoor employee break areas. The building has specifically been designed to accommodate the needs of the county departments by including items such as some doors sized for the moving of voting machines and a loading dock that can accommodate the off-loading of heavy items such as license plates for the DMV.

The parking lot on the west side of the building includes 60 spaces.

Adding the 911 system portion allowed for moving that from out of a large fifth-wheel trailer outside of the county’s Emergency Communications Center and into the new building. An antenna on top of the North Complex also creates optimal line-of-sight for communication and a backup generator allows for the operation of the backup 911 communications along with the rest of the building in case of an emergency.

IN LATE June, following the primary election, the elections department will occupy a portion of the new building.

County Grant Administrator Whitney Aschenwald, who served as project manager for the construction, noted the move will create the ability for the election department to spread out to nearby spaces as necessary. Inside the department’s office space are large conference tables for spreading out paperwork. A nearby conference room allows extra space for counting ballots and includes windows so it can be observed by the public.

“There’s a place for people to line up to get registered to vote and there's a place where people can take absentee ballots to tables to vote,” she said. “For some smaller elections, they may be able to use the conference room for voting booths.”

Aschenwald noted that the election department relies on a lot of volunteers so it’s important to have the space to accommodate that when necessary.

“There’s a lot of flexibility here for them,” she noted.

The North Complex building was funded through the county’s Payment in Lieu of Taxes allotment from the federal government, and the county’s land acquisition savings. The 911 backup system was paid for through a state 911 grant funded by the $1 fee on phone bills, and through capital improvement savings.

Features Editor Heidi Desch may be reached at 758-4421 or hdesch@dailyinterlake.com.