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Whitefish City Hall and Parking Structure Slated for May 22 Opening

Opening date pushed back due to recent rains that delayed finishing work

By Tristan Scott
Whitefish City Hall on May 3, 2017. Greg Lindstrom | Flathead Beacon

The long-awaited Whitefish City Hall and parking structure is slated to open May 22, with an open house and ribbon cutting planned from 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on June 5.

City officials previously announced the building would be finished the week of May 8 and open to the public on May 15, but City Manager Adam Hammatt announced this week that the opening has been delayed due to inclement weather.

Hammatt said recent rains have made it difficult for Martel Construction to finish and they need additional time.

The new City Hall is now expected to open for business at 8 a.m. on Monday, May 22.

Hammatt said the open house will entail short speeches, a ribbon cutting, placement of a time capsule, cake, and public tours of the new City Hall.

Martel Construction of Bigfork is the general contractor and construction manager for the $16.2 million project, and is nearing the home stretch on the downtown facility that replaces the 1917 City Hall and adds a three-story parking structure with about 200 spaces.

Construction on the project began with the demolition of the old city hall building in October 2015.

Mike Cronquist, the city of Whitefish’s owners’ representative on the project, provided the Whitefish City Council with a penultimate update on the project’s progress at the May 1 council meeting.

He said the list of remaining work includes pouring concrete for the sidewalks, painting metal awnings to hang canopies, painting trim, sealing bricks, sealing concrete ramps in the parking structure, setting air flows, and performing test-and-balance work.

City officials are scheduled to move out of the interim city hall on Baker Avenue on May 19, and city offices will be closed.

The parking structure also is scheduled to open May 22, but Hammatt said he hopes to have it open early.

The parking structure will feature 137 leased spaces and 77 free parking spaces on the bottom floor of the parking facility. More than 40 spaces have already been leased, Hammatt said.

In a letter explaining the parking facility to city residents, Hammatt said it will be free and open to the public through May 31. Beginning June 1, three-hour parking restrictions will be enforced for the free retail spaces, and the leased spaces will be enforced.

The parking structure will feature license plate recognition software to scan license plates of vehicles entering the garage to determine whether they are authorized to occupy a leased space. Up to 10 vehicles may share a lease on a single space.

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.

The new facility also features 3,000 square feet of retail space that has not yet been leased out.