Kalispell City Council to weigh amending the fire code, funding lead service line replacement effort

No, this isn’t a game of Clue, but Kalispell City Council on Monday will be talking lead pipes and dingey rooms.  

Council, which meets at 7 p.m. in City Hall, 201 First Ave. E., is expected to look at fire code amendments to address unsecure, unsafe properties and weigh funding options to replace lead service lines in the city at its Jan. 13 meeting.  

City Manager Doug Russell drafted an amendment to the municipality’s fire code that would address blighted, unsecured properties, particularly the former Outlaw Inn.  

Condemning a property isn’t permissible if it isn’t in violation of a city ordinance, but the amendment would target structures deemed unsafe due to fire hazards, illegal or improper occupancy, inadequate maintenance and being unsecured against unauthorized entry.  

The city fire code currently gives property owners 60 days to respond to a violation, but the amendment would shorten it to 10.  

Per the drafted amendment, if the property owner fails to comply after 10 days of receiving the notice of violation, a fire code official can abate the unsafe property “either by repair, rehabilitation, demolition, or other approved corrective action.”  

Russell suggested amending the code in November following an article published by the Daily Inter Lake highlighting the shuttered Outlaw Inn, which neighbors say has become an eyesore and poses a safety risk to the teenagers who explore the unsecured building.  

The 9-acre property, a former extended stay hotel in South Kalispell, was bought by Oregon-based real estate enterprise, Fortify Holdings, in 2022 with a goal to convert it into 250 multi-family studio units.  

Fortify has a history of buying up dilapidated buildings and converting them into apartments in the Pacific Northwest. But the company has also bumped up against nuisance laws in the city of Kennewick, Washington. The municipality declared one of Fortify’s projects a public nuisance after the building was left vacant and unsecure.  

FOLLOWING A federal mandate, Kalispell is required to identify and replace all lead and galvanized pipes in its drinking water system by 2037.  

Council will once again toil over two funding options to replace the pipes. One option would see the city use a mix of federal and local tax dollars to cover the replacement effort while the other would pass the cost to individual homeowners.  

To date, out of the roughly 10,000 lines inventoried, 43 are lead, 57 are galvanized, and 483 service lines are still listed as unknown, according to data provided by Public Works Director Susie Turner.  

Turner urged all homeowners who received a letter about their service line being listed as “unknown” to contact Public Works at 406-758-7720. 

Council first weighed options for funding the pipe replacement effort in September. Turner said at the time that the city could tap into $2.5 million from the State Revolving Fund, from which the city would immediately receive 60% loan forgiveness. It would still need to pay off the remaining 40% of the debt with interest. 

The other option, which was more favorable to some councilors, involves charging the homeowner in need of a replacement through a deferred payment plan. While the city would cover the upfront cost of replacing the service line, the homeowner would repay it over five to eight years, with the payments tacked onto their household’s water bill. 

Turner previously told Council that the cost of replacement could range from $5,000 to $17,000. 

Councilors Chad Graham, Sid Daoud and Sam Nunnally in September worried that using city funds would pull money from future projects and potentially increase rates down the line. 

Turner has said that the while the project could result in a delay to potential future projects, it would not increase water rates. 

Councilor Ryan Hunter has supported the loan option. In September he called the existence of lead pipes a longstanding emergency and expressed concern over putting the replacement cost onto low-income households. 

Lead is a toxic metal that can be harmful to human health even at low exposure levels, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. In children, low levels of exposure have been linked to damage to the central and peripheral nervous system, learning disabilities and function of blood cells. In adults, lead exposure can cause increased blood pressure, decreased kidney function and reproductive problems. 

Service line maintenance is the customer’s responsibility, according to city rules and regulations. A resolution would need to be adopted to allow the city to replace the service lines.   

If a customer refuses to replace the line, the city must continually notify the homeowner until the line is replaced.  

Reporter Jack Underhill can be reached at 758-4407 and junerhill@dailyinterlake.com.