Kalispell City Council to review proposed fiscal year 2024 budget

Kalispell City Council opens budget season on Monday with a first look at its proposed financial roadmap for the coming fiscal year.

The work session begins at 7 p.m. in the Council Chambers, 201 First Ave. E. Residents and other interested parties can attend remotely via Zoom.

In a memo to the mayor and Council prefacing the proposed fiscal year 2024 budget, City Manager Doug Russell highlighted several capital investments included in the document, among them replacing municipal and police vehicles, updating the fire department’s radio system and building upgrades. The latter undertakings include lighting and security systems on City Hall and the Kalispell Police Department building.

The city is also due to receive opioid settlement money, and Council can consider using the funds to continue the co-responder mental health crisis responder program, according to Russell’s memo.

Total expenditures in the proposed budget are listed as $138.9 million.

The city is only planning to add one employee this coming fiscal year, a grant-funded traffic enforcement position for three years that would have no impact on the city budget.

Council has already voted to increase planning and recreation fees this year, and authorized the city to purchase additional brownfield land from BNSF Railway to expand the multi-use Parkline Trail.

Last year’s $115 million budget included a large variety of water, sewer and stormwater projects. Though those efforts are mostly moving forward as scheduled, Russell wrote that “there may be some logistical components related to timing and financing that will be necessary to monitor,” due to price increases since they were initially planned.

Russell described the preliminary budget as taking a “continuing cautionary approach.”

“This allows us to manage our services in a consistent fashion and to continue with infrastructure investment, which is paramount in a growing community,” reads the memo.

Reporter Adrian Knowler can be reached at 758-4407 or aknowler@dailyinterlake.com.