The Flathead Valley Hockey Association can go ahead and apply for a permit to hold a hockey and beer festival at its outdoor ice rink in Woodland Park.

The Kalispell City Council on Monday agreed to make a special exception for the hockey association and bypass municipal code that does not allow the city manager to issue permits for events with alcohol sales or consumption in city parks.

“I just have no problem with having a one-time event in the winter at Woodland Park for a fundraising event for a worthy cause,” council member Bob Hafferman said about the nonprofit hockey association’s request. “If this was a request in summer, I would vote no.”

The March 1-2 festival is being sponsored in conjunction with the Montana Brewers Association. Craft brewers will sponsor eight hockey teams from Canada and Montana.

The event will raise money to pay down the mortgage on the hockey association’s privately owned ice rink.

Alcohol will be offered only on Saturday and limited to adults of legal age who show identification and buy a wrist band to taste beers, said Kim Morisaki, the hockey association’s president.

The fact that the event is a fundraiser and will be confined to a fenced area around the hockey rink made some council members feel better about their decision.

Council members at times wrestled with whether they were setting precedent for a flood of future requests.

“If this was not a fundraising event I don’t believe I would be able to support this. Because it is, and for a good cause, I will vote in favor,” council member Jim Atkinson said.

Two Kalispell residents spoke against the exception on Monday, at one point urging the City Council to “just say no to alcohol.” One of them singled out council member Kari Gabriel, who works as director of Flathead CARE.

Gabriel said Flathead CARE works to prevent underage drinking, not to stop legal adults from drinking. “This is an adult event that will be supervised,” she said.

Gabriel and council member Phil Guiffrida III said the festival will be a good test case as the City Council plans to review municipal code and possibly amend where events with alcohol sales or consumption are allowed.

Guiffrida said one concern is creating a variance to city policy.

“I wouldn’t normally support that,” Guiffrida said. “That’s why during the workshop I tried to get us talking about policy. That crashed and burned, unfortunately. But this will give us data to look at policy in the future.”

Kalispell Municipal Code allows the city manager to issue permits for events with alcohol sales or consumption only at Conrad Mansion, Hockaday Museum of Art and the Museum at Central School.

The Flathead Valley Hockey Association still must meet all of the requirements to secure a permit. That includes buying adequate insurance coverage to protect itself and the city of Kalispell from liability, making sure there will be adequate security and no underage drinking in the opinion of the Kalispell police chief, and making sure attendance does not exceed fire code for the facility.

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