After operating the Stumptown Ice Den at a deficit totaling $607,000 over the past eight years, the city of Whitefish proposes to increase user fees at the ice rink to cover operating costs and deferred maintenance.

The Whitefish City Council will hold a public hearing tonight to take public comments on two different fee options for private ice rental and a proposed $1 increase in the public skate admission rate.

Whitefish City Manager Chuck Stearns said that through conversations with industry leaders and consultants and research of national reports, “it became clear that the Stumptown Ice Den ice rental rates are significantly lower than the national average, as well as other Montana rinks.”

With the current rate structure, the Parks and Recreation Department would not be able to address preventive maintenance or future improvements, Stearns said.

Private groups use about 4,265 hours of ice time during the regular six-month season, paying up to $175 per hour for prime ice time.

The city has drawn up two increase options for the regular season. The first option — the city’s preferred option — bumps up rates $20 per hour next year and $5 per hour in fiscal year 2017. A second option stretches out the same amount of increases over three years.

Proposed fees also are addressed in an extended season rate schedule and for an eight-month regular season.

The regular rink season has varied the past several years between six and eight months. In the past two years, all user groups have shown significant interest in September ice, Stearns said, with some private user interest in April as well.

The public skate fee is proposed to increase from $5 to $6 per session.

Another public hearing on tonight’s agenda deals with a proposed ordinance setting the formula to be used in determining assessments for properties in the proposed special assessment district to finance a portion of the costs of the downtown parking structure to be built within the City Hall facility.

The ordinance addresses the various options and factors considered and used in the assessment method the council has chosen over the past couple of years.

A second hearing is scheduled Aug. 17.

There are 511 properties in the proposed special improvement district: 190 will be assessed at this point in time, and 321 properties are exempt, according to Stearns’ report to the council.

“It is very important to remember that as vacant properties develop ... or turn from residential use to commercial use, then more properties are added to the assessment and every assessed property’s assessment is reduced,” Stearns advised.

In other business, the council will vote on a resolution approving a commercial lease agreement with owners of the Stampede Square office complex to house city staff while the new City Hall is being built. A monthly rental rate of $8,500 includes water and sewer. The cost over two years would be $204,000. The cost will be paid from the ancillary costs budget of $1 million the city has set aside for the City Hall project.

A work session at 5 p.m. today will take public comments on the proposed fiscal year 2016 budget. The council will address a number of budget issues, such as a recommendation to settle police labor union negotiations with a 2.3 percent pay increase for 2016.

The pay level for the municipal judge and city manager also will be discussed, and proposed new city staff positions will be reviewed.

The regular council meeting begins at 7:10 p.m. Both the work session and council meeting will be held at Whitefish City Hall.

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