Now is not the time to vote on retaining an engineer for an environmental assessment at the Kalispell City Airport, a majority of the City Council agreed Monday night.

On a 5-3 vote, with one council member absent, the council tabled until its first meeting in February a decision on whether to qualify Stelling Engineers of Great Falls as the airport consulting engineer.

That gives the city time to hold a second meeting for answering questions raised at the first airport scoping session Nov. 30. That next meeting probably will be held on the fourth Monday in January.

It all goes to the appearance of a rushed process to determine how, and whether, to update and redevelop the city airport.

“We don’t have all the questions from the public,” council member Tim Kluesner said.

“By doing this now [qualifying Stelling as the consulting engineer], you inflame the situation. It’s not a dire need that this be done today,” he said. “We need to take a breath. It’s not going to kill us to wait three or four weeks on this … we need to make it the right way.”

Some of his colleagues argued for bringing Stelling on board now to provide the technical expertise and research ability to answer questions beyond the scope of the city staff.

Hank Olson noted that the KGEZ Radio towers, long a barrier for safe air space when landing or taking off to the southeast, were all but taken out of the equation when the radio station went into liquidation bankruptcy this fall. Technical questions now will arise to define safe air space that may stretch beyond the local scope of experience.

Jim Atkinson agreed.

“We need help” with technical research, Atkinson said. “It is not a slur on the staff that they don’t have all the answers.”

Randy Kenyon also called on his fellow council members to act immediately.

“We promised at the end of the first meeting [the public would] get answers at the second meeting,” Kenyon said. If all questions were not answered in January’s session, “we would be shirking our duty.”

The council had voted to table the discussion on Nov. 17, citing a duty to hear issues brought out in the Nov. 30 session first. City Manager Jane Howington scheduled it for Monday, council member Randy Kenyon moved to bring it off the table, and ensuing discussion provoked three motions to re-table it.

The first motion, tabling it until after the January meeting but setting no specific date for reconsideration, failed on a tie vote. Council member Kari Gabriel was absent.

Among the duties listed in the request for qualifications is an update of the 2002 environmental assessment done by Robert Peccia and Associates. That was the sticking point for many who feared it signals that the city already has decided on a redevelopment project that requires an assessment.

Howington told the council the environmental assessment wording could be separated from the request for qualifications, leaving the city with an agreement for professional consulting services only.

A list of 10 or 20 questions came up on Nov. 30 that she feels need an outside expert to answer, either for aviation expertise or for a neutral point of view. The council could go with Stelling for those, she said, or direct her to get quotes from three firms with aviation background and select the best firm from those bids.

Or, the council later pointed out, those technical questions could go unanswered for the January meeting and only the ones that city staff can answer would come back.

“We promised answers,” council president Duane Larson said. “The public is wise enough to know that there are some things the staff just can’t know and so we don’t have the answers yet.

“I can’t support the concept of hiring an engineer now,” Larson continued. “It’s not the time, it’s not transparent. By making a decision now we’re saying we don’t care what they think, we’ve got our minds made up.”

Kluesner made the first motion to table, but it died for lack of a second.

Bob Hafferman made the second motion to table, putting reconsideration off until an indefinite time after the January meeting. That failed on a 4-4 tie vote.

Larson moved to table the decision until the first meeting in February. It passed with the support of Wayne Saverud, Hafferman, Kluesner and Mayor Pam Kennedy Carbonari.

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com