Whitefish City Council has approved a contract to construct new parking near City Beach.

The city plans to reconstruct a two-block section of Woodland Place between Washington Avenue and Oregon Avenue to create 24 parking spaces.

“We all know how important parking is at City Beach,” City Councilor Andy Feury said.

Whitefish purchased the lot at 55 Woodland Place in 2015 with the intent of creating parking. The city has historically had an issue with parking congestion at City Beach on Whitefish Lake.

City Council last week approved a contract to construct the parking and make improvements to the sanitary sewer lift station at City Beach. The contract was awarded to Watson Excavating at $368,245.

Public Works Director Craig Workman said though creating new parking and upgrading the lift station are not connected projects, city staff was able to find a way to save money by combining the two projects into one construction contract.

“The idea is that the excess material excavated from the Woodland Place [parking] project could be transported to the City Beach lift station for the fill necessary to construct access improvements,” Workman said.

The parking portion of the plan calls for reconstructing Woodland Place between Oregon and the alley, and reconstructing Woodland Place between Washington Avenue and the alley. Work includes pavement, curb and gutter, sidewalk, retaining walls and landscaping.

The reconstruction will also include a section of lawn to serve as a non-motorized watercraft staging area.

An extension of the shared use path along Oregon Avenue to serve as a connection from the Skye Park Bridge to City Beach is also part of the project.

Work on the lift station is designed to improve access to the station by constructing a small utility drive, allowing service vehicles to access the station directly from Skyles Avenue.

Workman said currently access to the City Beach station is difficult.

In order to remove a pump from the lift station for routine maintenance heavy equipment must be hauled down the dirt path, and if a pump requires off-site service a dolly must be used to maneuver the pump back up the hill to a service truck, and pumping requires a heavy vacuum hose to be set out down the path.

“Both of these activities require exhaustive efforts by Public Works operators,” he said.

In order to construct the utility drive it will require removal of brush and a few small trees. Revegetation of the area is planned.

An emergency power generator will also be installed at the lift station, Workman said, because currently there is none there and the location is prone to power outages so that will improve reliability of the station.

The engineering estimate for the entire project was $320,000.

Cost of the lift station improvements total $92,800, which is under what was budgeted for the project.

The parking improvements cost is $275,300, which is $65,000 above what was budgeted for the project.

City staff recommended awarding the contract and then negotiating with the contractor to reduce the landscaping portion of the work to make up at least some of the cost overrun. Council agreed to the plan.