Kalispell City Council finalizes park ordinances
Feb. 23—Kalispell City Council approved the second reading of a package of ordinances placing new restrictions on the use of public parks and related facilities at its Tuesday meeting.
The ordinances were introduced and debated at Council's Jan. 23 work session and passed at the body's last meeting, but city policy requires new ordinances to undergo two readings before going on the books.
Officials began considering the ordinances after receiving complaints about a group of homeless people congregating during daylight hours in the gazebo at the city's downtown Depot Park. The city shut down the gazebo and the pavilion in Woodland Park while the council weighed the new policies.
At Tuesday's meeting, ordinance supporters and opponents alike argued that the rules failed to address homelessness in the city or the underlying causes of the issue, with councilors and members of the public pointing to an expansion of mental health services as a possible solution for the city's homeless and chronically homeless populations.
Mylene Widner, a social worker for Western Montana Mental Health Center's homelessness prevention initiative, opposed the ordinances.
She said the restrictions would make it more difficult for social services providers to engage the chronically homeless people they serve. She said it's been increasingly challenging to reach clients since the city closed the gazebo on Jan. 19. Their subsequent dispersal has threatened the relationships social workers have spent months cultivating, she said.
"They congregate there for safety," Widner said of the people who had gathered in the gazebo. "These ordinances will force them further into darkness."
She also described a need for a daytime mental health treatment center, which the Flathead Valley has lacked since Sunburst Mental Health closed its facility a year ago, according to Sean O'Neill of Community Action Partnership.
Business owner Tucker Landerman spoke in favor of the ordinances, but said that they were not a solution to what he viewed as a growing problem.
"There's a lot we need to do," said Councilor Kari Gabriel of the homeless issue.
"We owe it more to the people who are homeless and who have mental health issues to try to help find solutions to their problems, but it doesn't come from these three ordinances," said Mayor Mark Johnson.
Johnson said that addressing homelessness and associated mental health issues require a "big pot of money" from the state.
"We don't have those resources. We never will have those resources, especially with the current Legislature, they keep hamstringing us," Johnson said.
Councilor Chad Graham said he wanted to see the Council review the city's panhandling ordinance, with the view of strengthening or replacing it. He referenced an ordinance in Pasco, Washington that would fine drivers $500 for giving money to a panhandler.
Councilor Jessica Dahlman said she wanted Council to continue discussing tax increment financing and workforce housing programs to address the city's affordable housing shortage.
Both items will be on the agenda for next Monday's work session, and the Council will also discuss a recent economic report on the county's housing shortage.
Reporter Adrian Knowler can be reached at 758-4407 or aknowler@dailyinterlake.com.
