A resolution to create a special improvement district to pay for storm-water drainage improvements in the Willows was tabled last Monday as the Kalispell City Council voted to explore the issue in more detail during an upcoming work session.

With soggy ground, wet basements and ducks on puddle-filled streets seen some springs, homeowners petitioned Kalispell to create the special improvement district.

Through that mechanism, Kalispell would issue 20-year bonds to pay for an estimated $392,556 project to upgrade the neighborhood’s storm-water detention pond and discharge pipe into the Stillwater River.

Homeowners then would pay an estimated $30 a month of extra property taxes to pay off the debt.

Only one property owner has formally protested the creation of the special improvement district. That’s far short of the number of people needed to stop it. But several people who live on Buttercup Loop spoke out during Monday’s public hearing, asking for a council work session to discuss the project.

Mark Armstrong said he was disappointed that hoped-for grant funds to lower the project’s cost never materialized and called the $30 monthly payment a “hefty weight” for families to carry. He added that other neighborhoods upstream stand to benefit from proposed improvements.

He and others want to know if residents in Leisure Heights or the Muskrat Slough neighborhoods, or even the city itself, could help pay for the proposed improvements.

Brock Anderson said, “The hardest thing to swallow is that two other neighborhoods use our pipe. That’s where we have major, major issues.”

Homeowners are having a hard time swallowing the estimated monthly payment, Anderson said. “We support it, something needs to be done to help our subdivision, but we would like a meeting to see if there are other options we can work with,” he said.

Another homeowner said she approached the city several years ago about drainage problems on her property and was told it was something she would have to deal with. She said at that point she was one of the only people in the neighborhood having problems

“We took care of our problem and this is a great burden to put on us now, to pay for everyone else’s when we were told to take care of it ourself,” she told the council.

Kalispell annexed the 87-lot subdivision after it was built in the late 1990s. The neighborhood’s storm-water drainage system did not meet city standards so it was agreed that a homeowner association would retain ownership of the system and be responsible for maintenance. That association never formed, according to city officials.

The property sits at the end of a natural drainage swale, Public Works Director Susie Turner said.

At Monday’s meeting, City Manager Doug Russell told the council it may be wise to hold a work session on the issue in August, “versus going straight forward with something people don’t feel comfortable with.”

Council members agreed and voted 9-0 to table the resolution.

Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.