Levy could provide overtaxed Kalispell Fire Department with more personnel, new station

When the calls began coming in Feb. 1 about a possible structure fire off of Three Mile Drive, the Kalispell Fire Department was across town fielding a medical call.

It was the agency’s sixth incident of the day, and the department summoned mutual aid from Smith Valley and Evergreen to cover the blaze. The response time was seven minutes — three minutes longer than the national average — although Assistant Fire Chief Jessica Kinzer said the engine dispatched quickly and traffic was minimal. 

That the building was an unoccupied backyard workshop was a lucky break, Kinzer said. By the time crews arrived the flames were too high for firefighters to enter and save anyone who might have been inside. 

The response to the fire, which saw a plume of smoke rise up over the city, is increasingly typical, according to Kalispell Fire Chief Dan Pearce. A higher call load and increasing reliance on mutual aid has hampered the agency’s response time as the city grows, he said.

“We’re juggling multiple calls at the same time,” Pearce said, stating that 25% of the time calls arrive on top of each other and 20% of the time responders must triage calls for want of resources. 

A March 19 mail-in election asks voters to authorize the city to levy an additional 60.9 mills — expected to generate $4.6 million in its first year — annually for public safety. The funds would be split between the Fire Department and the Police Department. 

A recent audit of the Fire Department by the Center for Public Safety Management found that between 2018 and 2022, Kalispell saw a 32% increase in emergency fire response calls, a 19% increase in ambulance calls and a 23% increase in calls overall. 

The 280-page report offered assessments on the Fire Department’s organizational structure, staffing, planning, training and operations. 

One of the audit’s recommendations called on the department to “aggressively take whatever steps are necessary to significantly improve turnout times for both fire and EMS incidents” as a way to “reduce and improve overall response times to emergency incidents.” 

“We didn’t see eye to eye on everything,” Pearce said of the report, noting that some of the center’s suggestions had already been implemented, some were underway at the time and a few were considered irrelevant.

But the report highlighted needs that Pearce has faced for a long time. 

Pearce recalled that the Fire Department of the 1990s boasted a chief and assistant chief, and a fire marshal and training captain all in one station. 

“Now we have one less administrator, double the employees, double the stations, and we do it with two people (chief and assistant chief).” 

The audit recommended the department add a full-time EMS coordinator position with the rank of captain. It also called for a full-time training and safety officer, and suggested the agency consider expanding its administrative staff in the future. 

The review recommended reestablishing the department’s Fire Service Bureau, staffed with a fire marshal and fire inspector. 

And it called for the hiring of additional personnel in the coming years, first increasing the minimum on-duty staffing to eight people, then nine and finally 10. 

“Having the ability to staff two EMS units 24/7 will eliminate the need for most EMS mutual aid into the city, which will reduce potential revenue loss,” the audit found. 

    Firefighters work at the scene of a house fire on Fourth Avenue East in Kalispell in 2020. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
  

EVERGREEN AND Whitefish assist Kalispell in fire operations with a dedicated, paid staff, but Pearce states the response time can be up to 20 minutes. Other stations like West Valley provide volunteer assistance, but their staff may not be in the firehouse when calls come in. 

Pearce also said his crews have faced increased risk in recent years: “We are the default call for, really, a lot of situations.”

“We have a new depth of calls with a mental health aspect,” Pearce said. “It's a care that is new to us — we're not exactly trained for that.”

Kalispell’s demographics also come into play, according to the audit. It noted that 17% of the city’s population is over age 65, which translates into more medical calls. In summer, the population of the county seat swells to 1.4 million with tourists, according to the report. 

“The large infusion of visitor population, combined with significant growth, combined with an aging population are all of significant relevance to Kalispell’s emergency services,” the audit concluded.

Donations, grants, and Round Up for Safety — a program sponsored by Flathead Electric Cooperative and voluntarily funded by members — have provided some cushion, Pearce said, but not enough. 

Impact fees, set by Kalispell City Council, may pay for an apparatus like a new fire truck and the design of a new station, but not the cost of construction or replacement of an aging vehicle, he said. 

Adding to the squeeze, Pearce reported cost increases across the board. The department has repeatedly run over budget on diesel fuel, and has already spent $22,000 of its $24,000 allotment meant to last until June 30.

Protective outfits have risen in cost from $2,500 to $3,500. Sets of four tires have gone up $1,000 to a cost of $4,500. Each of the department’s two engines come with 16 wheels. 

“A new fire engine is slightly over $1 million, and a ladder truck $2 million,” Pearce said.

IN RESPONSE to the concerns raised by the audits, Kalispell will hold a mail-in election March 19, asking voters to authorize the city to levy an additional 60.9 mills annually to cover the cost of creating new positions within the police and fire departments as well as erect and staff a new fire station on Farm to Market Road, which the audit recommended officials pursue. 

The purchase of an ambulance and a new fire engine would also be covered by the revenue, officials said.

The levy will be paid through property taxes, coming out to about $369 a year on a home valued at $450,000, for example, and is expected to generate $4.6 million in its first year.

The audits of the Police and Fire departments, made public over the summer, pushed city leaders to begin preparing for a levy request. In November, Council voted unanimously to put the largest of the three potential levy options developed by city staff before voters.

“This is what we need in black and white,” said Mayor Mark Johnson during a Council meeting in the fall. 

Still, city councilors recognized it might be a hard sell to voters.

“For a lot of people, this isn’t small money,” said Councilor Chad Graham as he voted to put the request on the ballot.

During a Jan. 8 work session, with commercials and an online information campaign already underway, City Manager Doug Russell stressed that the need would remain regardless of the election’s outcome.

“As we look to the future, this need is not going to go away,” he said, adding, “We want people to be informed and vote.”

Pearce said the Fire Department has had the same stations and the same number of staff since 2006 when Kalispell’s population was roughly 19,000 people. Between 2010 and 2020, the city’s population grew from 19,927 people to 24,558, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The federal agency estimated that the population had grown to 28,450 as of July 2023. 

“The levy will get us considerable time in the future, and deal with the growth taking place,” he said. 

Reporter Carl Foster can be reached at 758-4407 or cfoster@dailyinterlake.com.