County Commission Update

We didn’t have a regular meeting last week. Tuesday evening we held a Public meeting to talk about the proposed rest area at the Boulder interchange. We have some interest in establishing a Targeted Economic Development District (TEDD) West of the Boulder interchange. The County is working with the State to have the current rest areas at Jefferson City moved to Boulder. The County would put in the infrastructure across the interstate to facilitate the rest area and for future development. The Public was mostly supportive. One rancher was concerned about water rights.

Wednesday we had a Jefferson Local Development (JLDC) meeting in Montana City. Several folks were re-nominated for Board positions. We also discussed nominations for the Innovative Business of the Year, the Business of the Year, and the Community Improvement Award. We set the Annual Meeting for August 30 2017 in Whitehall.

Thursday we held our Tax Increment Finance District (TIFD) Board meeting in Boulder. We discussed infrastructure upgrades in both the North TIFD and South TIFD. We were also advised the wind developers that we have been working with have decided to sell their testing facility in Missoula and move all of their operations to the Sunlight Business Park. We will be building a 4000 square foot building in the next few months.

Saturday evening the residents of Sugar Beet Row held a “sewer party” at Tim and Diane Welna’s house to celebrate having their sewer problems fixed by finally being hooked into the Town system. This project was extremely frustrating at times, but also was very rewarding to see the Feds, State, County, and private people all work together to get a very important project completed. Because of all the delays we had with project after the Town refused to participate the project had considerable overruns in costs. Rural Development kicked in an additional $20,000, and DNRC put in an extra $10,000. Great West Engineering cut their additional fees in half, and the bond Council also cut his extra fees. The residents of Sugar Beet Row put in extra money out of their pockets so the Town could be paid every month until the tax payments start coming in. The County ended up putting in another $10,000 to make up any shortfall. I certainly appreciate the card and the kind words expressed at the party.

FYI: Lloyd Noble, (1896-1950), “No civilization can survive the time when its agriculture economy is destroyed.”