With a blessing from the Resort Tax Monitoring Committee, the Whitefish City Council tonight will consider moving the Second Street East reconstruction project higher up on the priority list for street projects paid for with resort-tax revenue.

A public hearing will be held before the council votes on the resort tax project switch.

Two-thirds of the money collected from Whitefish's 2-cent tax on lodging, restaurants and bar food and drink and luxury retail items is used to rebuild city streets.

The idea is to get going as quickly as possible on a bicycle and pedestrian trail along Second Street East to provide a safe route to Armory Park, a popular spot where a dog park, skate park, softball fields, dirt-bike facility and Armory community building are located.

The rebuild of Sixth Street and Geddes Avenue from Baker Avenue to West Second Street is No. 1 on the priority list, and that project already is in the pipeline to be completed over the next two years.

If approved, the Second Street East project would move to No. 2 on the list, bumping the West Seventh Street rebuild from Baker Avenue to Karrow Avenue until a later date.

Two other public hearings are on the agenda - one to adopt a resolution for updates to utility rules and another to amend the city code and establish a process for temporary encroachment permits.

The council will consider authorizing an engineering consultant selection process for design of the Skye Park pedestrian bridge. The bridge would connect the BNSF Loop Trail and City Beach on the north side of the Whitefish River with Birch Point Drive on the south.

The city's impact fee advisory committee will give a report and recommendations for changes to impact fees. The committee met recently and decided to recommend the city eliminate some fees and do a study of the fee structure and how it's working in the current economic climate.

The council also will look at a revised interlocal agreement with the Whitefish Housing Authority to handle more than $15,000 in delinquent payments in lieu of taxes to the city for the Mountain View Manor building.

City Manager Chuck Stearns said he met with Housing Authority Director SueAnn Grogan earlier this fall to work out a payment plan of $1,000 per quarter plus on-time payment in lieu of taxes payments of about $7,000 per year.

The council will interview several candidates for board vacancies from 5 to 6 p.m., then will go into a closed executive session to talk about litigation before beginning a public discussion at 6:25 p.m. of proposed revisions to the critical areas ordinance.

The regular meeting begins at 7:10 p.m.; both meetings are at Whitefish City Hall.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.