New City Hall building opening pushed back a week

The new Whitefish City Hall building opening has been pushed back a week.

The city had previously expected completion of the building by the week of May 8 and to open to the public on May 15, but City Manager Adam Hammatt announced Monday that the opening has been delayed. The new City Hall is now expected to open for business at 8 a.m. on Monday, May 22.

Hammatt said recent rains have made it difficult for Martel Construction to finish and they need an extra week to wrap things up.

“They’ve been unable to do get a lot of the exterior things done and we want to make sure that gets done before we open,” he said. “We didn’t want workers still running around once we open.”

Some of the items that have been delayed due to the weather include pouring concrete for sidewalks, painting metal awnings to hang canopies, sealing bricks, and sealing of concrete and painting in the parking structure.

Construction of the $16.2 million new City Hall and attached parking structure began with the demolition of the 1917 City Hall building in October 2015. Martel Construction of Bigfork is the general contractor and construction manager for the project.

The city has also pushed back an open house for the new building. The event has now been announced for Monday, June 5 from 3 to 5:30 p.m.

Hammatt said the open house schedule is still being determined but is expected to entail short speeches, a ribbon cutting, placement of the time capsule, cake and tours of the new City Hall.

“I hope everyone can make it,” he said.

In order for city offices to move out of interim City Hall and the Parks and Recreation and Planning departments from their location in the city’s building at Depot Park, city offices will be closed for business on Friday, May 19.

City departments are also expected to close for business transactions at 3 p.m. for the June 5 open house.

The parking structure will open as soon as work on it is finished, Hammatt said, but at the latest it will open on the same day as City Hall — May 22.

“We want to try to have that available sooner,” he said.

Leased parking spots inside the new garage became available for purchase on Monday.

Hammatt said already 40 leased spaces have been purchased.

There will be 137 leased spaces and 77 free parking spaces in the structure.

Parking leases will begin in June, and prior to that the entire parking facility will be free for use during the remainder of May.

The city last month mailed out letters outlining the details of the leased spots.

The entire facility will be free and open 24 hours per day through May 31, Hammatt said, but beginning June 1 three-hour parking restrictions will be enforced for the free retail parking spaces and leases will be enforced.

On the top two floors of the parking facility, there are 75 uncovered and 62 covered parking spaces for lease. Two of the covered spaces are designated for handicapped parking.

The leased spaces will rent at $30 per month for uncovered parking and $40 per month for covered parking.

The leased spaces will be reserved for lease-holder only parking from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday through Friday, excluding city holidays.

The city is using license plate recognition software that uses cameras to scan license plates as the vehicle enters the leased area of the garage and determines whether it is authorized to park there. The software allows up to 10 license plates for one leased space, however, only one listed license plate per permit can be parking in the leased area at a time.

The city is providing discounted rates for certain bulk purchases of leases. No refunds will be offered, Hammatt said, once leases are purchased, but leases can be sold or transferred to other users.

“Be careful not to buy more than you intend to use,” Hammatt cautions.

The city has partnered with ParkMobile and NXGEN to register and pay for leases. The login page will be posted on the city’s website, wwww.cityofwhitefish.org, by May 1 or leases can be purchased in the City Clerk’s office at City Hall.

On the bottom floor of the parking facility, there will be 77 free parking spaces. Three-hour parking will be enforced from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Five of the spaces are 15-minute spaces and two are handicapped access spaces.

Hammatt said for vehicles parked more than three hours enforcement action will be taken such as a parking citation.

On Friday evening from 6 p.m. through Monday morning at 6 a.m., all parking spaces in the structure will be open to the public for free parking without time limitations.

The city designed the structure as a retail parking structure, but has said by providing leased spaces in the structure that will move employee cars off the streets freeing up those spaces for folks looking to visit retail shops and restaurants downtown.