Kalispell City Council on Tuesday considers sponsoring a $350,000 grant application for Flathead Valley Community College to expand its heavy equipment operator training and licensing program.

The college is targeting Community Development Block Grant Economic Development Workforce Training Program money to buy machinery for practical training. Purchases would include a grader, bulldozer, scraper, mid-size loader and two excavators.

Kalispell Community and Economic Development Manager Katharine Thompson said the city and college have partnered on similar grants in the past. Those bought equipment for the college’s welding and machining programs, she said.

Students who have completed the college’s heavy equipment operators program over the last two years have seen a roughly 80 percent job placement rate. And data suggests demand for such workers is expected to continue growing, Thompson writes in a memo to the City Council.

Council members will vote on a resolution of intent to apply, the first step in the process. They would then hold a March 4 public hearing on the proposal and authorize city staff to formally apply for the competitive funding from the Montana Department of Commerce.

If funded, the college would provide matching funds as required by the grant. Up to $7,000 for administrative fees and $2,000 for audit fees in the grant would cover the city’s cost of applying, Thompson said.

KALISPELL CITY Council also will be asked to award an $863,188 bid to Swank Enterprises to renovate the primary digester at the wastewater treatment plant. The project would replace the digester’s concrete lid, mixer and foam separator.

The 50-by-32-foot concrete tank is part of the treatment plant’s solids-reduction process. Inside, microbes digest solids from the plant’s clarifiers and fermenters. That generates methane gas captured to heat the digester, but the corrosive gas has also eaten away at the tank’s internal coating and lid.

Kalispell budgeted for the project to cost $865,000 including construction and engineering. The city is paying for the work with a state revolving fund loan. Parts of the proposed project exceed early cost estimates by more than $116,000 so Kalispell may have to amend its loan amount and budget.

IN OTHER BUSINESS, Kalispell City Council will vote to:

• Purchase a $326,849 sewer cleaning and vacuum truck from Titan Machinery. Kalispell budgeted $325,000 for the truck but expects savings in stormwater fund line items to make up the difference.

• Appoint HDR Engineering as engineer of record for an estimated $560,000 project to replace one of two belt-driven sludge presses at the wastewater treatment plant with a new screw press. The presses were installed 20 years ago and costly repairs and down time are driving the replacement.

• Award a contract for Applied Water and CTA Industrial Hygiene and Environmental to help administer Kalispell’s Brownfields program. The firms will do site assessments, draft cleanup plans and oversee cleanups. The contract is funded by the city’s Brownfields grants and will not exceed $170,000.

• Adopt an ordinance to let lodging properties outside the Tourism Business Improvement District join voluntarily as associate members.

Tuesday’s meeting starts at 7 p.m. in Kalispell City Hall, 201 First Ave. E. It is open to the public.

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