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Helena City reports progress on strategic-plan projects; utility billing and fire station financing move forward
Summary
City staff told the Helena City Commission that multiple elements of the 2023 strategic plan are complete or near completion, including ERP payroll, ADA ramp work, fuels-reduction grants on city hills and financing for a third fire station; utility billing under the new system will begin in October.
Helena City officials on Aug. 27 updated the City Commission on implementation of elements of the 2023 strategic plan, saying several internal systems and capital projects are complete or nearing key milestones.
City staff reported that the city has completed digitization of ordinance workflow and codification, implemented an enterprise resource planning payroll system, and finished an interactive development-explorer dashboard intended to improve permitting transparency. Staff said the Human Resources module of the ERP is in place and additional HR improvements will be deployed in phases.
Officials said work funded by state and local infrastructure grants is complete at the wastewater treatment facility, where a bioreactor mixer was installed, and that ADA-improvement projects supported by the funds — described in the update as curb-ramp work in Broadwater and at C.R. Anderson — are finished or underway. The city also reported completion of a dust-mitigation program and restoration of the city fire tower.
City staff said the utility-billing portion of the ERP will transition in September and that the first bills under the new system will be sent in October. Agenda-management software integration with the city’s document-management system and Zoom is tentatively scheduled for September.
On public-safety and resilience projects, staff reported receipt of multiple grants for fuels-reduction work on Mount Ascension and Mount Helena; crews are working now and expect completion this fall. Staff described how the project marks treatment boundaries with pink flags and marks trees to be retained with blue flags; workers prune taller retained trees 6–8 feet and prune shorter retained trees by roughly one-third of their height.
Officials also said financing for a planned third fire station is in place following bond sales completed on Aug. 14; staff expect 100% construction drawings in October–November, after which permitting and bidding would follow. City staff said exact construction start dates will depend on permitting and contract awards.
Staff noted two remaining near-term items: a transformer replacement needed to complete a recently installed solar array at “Bill Roberts” (the replacement part is on order) and ongoing technical-support replacement work at King McKenna Park.
