The Kalispell City Council officially outlawed feeding wildfowl in city parks during a virtual meeting Monday evening.

The city approved the second reading of a new ordinance that imposes a civil penalty against anyone caught intentionally feeding birds or abandoning animals in city parks. Councilor Sid Daoud, who voted against the first reading of the ordinance, cast the only opposing vote on Monday.

Daoud explained he would have liked to see more of an effort to coordinate with members of the community before putting an official ordinance in place against feeding the birds.

However, there were multiple arguments in favor of the official ban, including public comments from two of the people who organized the effort to adopt all of the domestic birds in Woodland Park in February. One organizer, Jennifer Cale, said many people do not seem to realize that artificial feeding causes health and environmental problems for the animals in the park and could ultimately lead to the need to organize another large-scale adoption event.

Councilor Sam Nunnally also pointed out the Kalispell City Council confronted a similar problem with bird-feeding around the mid-1970s but did not enact an ordinance against it. Therefore, he felt it was time to finally put a formal stop to the pervasive practice.

“We need to take time to fix it and I think this will be a good step to fix it ultimately,” Nunnally said.

THE COUNCIL unanimously approved two budget adjustments to make up for incorrect carryover amounts from the previous fiscal year. These were an approximately $200,000 reduction in the Bridge and Road Safety and Accountability Act Special Revenue Fund Budget and an approximately $32,000 increase to the Community Development Miscellaneous Special Revenue Fund Budget.

The council also unanimously passed a request to annex and rezone a property on Eighth Avenue West so that the property owners can access city sewer services.

A single-family residence at 904 8th Avenue West was annexed into the city and rezoned from county R-1 residential zoning to city R-4 residential zoning, because the current septic field near the residence located outside city limits is failing. With the annexation and zone change, the property owners will now be able to access the nearby Westside Interceptor city sewer service.

At the end of the meeting, City Manager Doug Russell advised the council that the Montana League of Cities and Towns will hold its annual conference this week, and Mayor Mark Johnson let the council know his Task Force on Homelessness will soon come forward with results from its survey of housing needs in the city.

Reporter Bret Anne Serbin may be reached at (406)-758-4459 or bserbin@dailyinterlake.com.