The Kalispell Fire Department is looking for a firm to design and build a new station on the rapidly growing west side of town.  

The forthcoming station, the city’s third, is slated to go up on city-owned land at 490 Mountain Vista Way just east of Farm to Market Road. City Hall formally issued the request for proposals last month.  

Department officials have a general idea of what Fire Station 63 will look like, but Chief Jay Hagen said a professional firm will finalize the design, determine the cost and develop a construction timeline. He expects work on the building to wrap up in two years.  

Hagen held a conference on March 4 to help interested firms fine-tune applications before submitting them. He said he won’t know the final number of applicants until the submission window closes but estimated that representatives from about 20 companies attended the gathering.  

A review committee will select a firm from the pool of applicants after the submissions window closes on March 18. Hagen expects to then seek Kalispell City Council’s blessing. 

The station will be fitted with three full-length apparatus bays, a kitchen, dining room, lounge, fitness room and individual sleeping rooms.  

Funding for the facility will come from a mix of impact fees and revenue from the voter-approved emergency services levy. The city has called for putting aside $7.5 million for the station in its five-year capital improvement plan.   

The mill levy, which took effect on July 1, 2024 — the start of fiscal year 2025 — has bolstered the Police and Fire Departments with extra tax dollars to hire additional staff and acquire new equipment.   

“The funds are accumulating like snow in a snowbank,” Hagen said. 

Those dollars will also be used to hire staff for the fire engine and ambulance at the new station. Hagen said the department will start by hiring three employees, then expand to five and eventually to eight.  

Hagen had hoped to begin work on the new station when he joined the department in May, but turnover among city managers and the need to wait for additional levy funds delayed the start. 

“We don’t want to be rushing this to the point of not having adequate funds,” he said.   

City Council began moving on a levy request in 2023 after reviewing the results of an independent audit of the municipality's emergency responder agencies. Conducted by the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Public Safety Management, the audit found that both departments provided quality service but lagged behind the national average in response time. 

Before the levy was approved, former Chief Dan Pearce said the department struggled to keep up with increasing call volumes as the city expanded, leading to a growing reliance on mutual aid.   

The expanded department — including two new training captains — will allow for more efficient response times, which could help improve the city’s ISO rating. The Insurance Services Office rates fire departments on a scall of one to 10, with one being the best and a higher number leading to higher insurance costs. Kalispell holds a rating of three.  

“The levy has provided for more training to captains, so we’re going to try to shore up and we’re going to do the very best we can to try and improve that rating,” Hagen said.  

Hagen said the city will receive a new rating in the next few months.   

As the project chugs along, Hagen plans to reach out to the surrounding neighborhood that the new station will be tucked in with. 

“We want this to be something that that community out there is proud of, and we want to be a good neighbor,” he said.  

Reporter Jack Underhill can be reached at 406-758-4407 or [email protected]. If you value local journalism, pledge your support at dailyinterlake.com/support.