County budget includes new AOA facility

The Flathead County Commissioners approved a $98.1 million preliminary budget for the next fiscal year on June 16. The budget, which came in 20 percent higher than last year’s, will be finalized on the first Monday in August.

County administrator Mike Pence said most of the increase reflects how the county transfers transactions from one fund to another.

“It sounds huge but it really isn’t,” he said.

Finance director Sandy Carlson said $1.7 million of the budget increase is for personnel services, which includes pay increases. Operating budgets for the county’s various departments increased by 1.5 to 2 percent.

Deputy county attorneys will get bigger pay increases, phased in over time. A salary survey found pay for the attorneys was considerably less than average. The only addition to the county work force will be one full-time employee in the Human Resources Department, Pence said in a budget memo to the commissioners.

At the top of next year’s $14.1 million capital improvement program is a $6 million building for the Agency on Aging and other county services that could be constructed south of the Earl Bennett Building over the next two years. Half the money would be in next year’s budget.

The two-story facility would provide space for the Agency on Aging, some Health Department services, such as the dental clinic, and the Maintenance Department, Pence said.

The new building could have the potential for a third floor as space is needed, and a sky bridge similar to one used by Glacier Bank in downtown Kalispell could connect it to the Earl Bennett Building, Pence said.

The Agency on Aging’s meal program and other services have been housed in a former auction barn on Kelly Road for the past 11 years. With a growing senior population, the agency has long outgrown that facility.

Rep. Jerry O’Neil, R-Columbia Falls, spoke out at the June 16 commissioner meeting, saying it was unfair to spend $6 million on an Agency on Aging building in Kalispell that’s too far away for many rural residents to use.

“Yet you’ll be taxing them,” he said, adding, “If Kalispell wants to build an AOA building, that’s fine.”

Having churches and fraternal organizations provide services to seniors would be a better alternative, he said.

Commissioner Gary Krueger spoke in favor of the capital improvement plan. He said the south campus building “has been on the radar since back when the old hospital was sold. The plan was to have two Earl Bennett buildings.”

A $2.9 million renovation of the historic Flathead County Jail also is included in the capital improvement plan. Once refurbished, the old jail will accommodate the Flathead County Attorney offices. Renovation work should begin by late summer or early fall, Pence said.

Other expenditures in the 2015 capital improvement plan include $2.5 million for a liner expansion at the county landfill and $500,000 in additional land purchases adjacent to the landfill for future expansion.