County Commission Update

Hi Folks,

We didn’t have a meeting last week because we were all in Billings at the MACO convention. Parts of the convention are interesting and informative, while other parts get pretty long. We generally have some good discussions about public lands, wildlife, forests, mining, budgets, and a host of other topics. My two year term on the Board of Directors ended this week, so Sunday’s BOD meeting was my last.

I left early Wednesday morning and got back in time to attend the North County Business Roundtable in Montana City. We heard a presentation from our Planner, LaDana Hintz about subdivision and zoning issues. Those are always huge issues in that part of the County, so the presentation was very informative for the folks who attended.

I attended the Fair Board meeting Wednesday night. There was a lot of discussion about the facility and what kind of infrastructure needs we may need in the future.

Thursday morning I went to the MDC Transition Planning Advisory Council meeting in Boulder. It doesn’t appear that they will be able to place all of the residents in group homes by the end of the year. They were able to place most of them, but they are down to some of the more difficult residents and most of the group homes aren’t willing to take them. Drew Dawson, Chairman of the BTAC, proposed that the MDC remain open for another two years so that we can figure out the best way to place the more difficult residents.

Thursday afternoon I joined Forest Service staff and members of the B-D Strike Team that will be doing the NEPA analysis for the Red Rocks project. We saw Douglas Fir trees that were over 300 years old and Lodgepole Pine trees that were over 160 years old. We also saw huge amounts of beetle killed trees that will be coming down soon if don’t do something with them.

FYI: Will Rogers; “If we got one-tenth of what was promised to us in these State of the Union speeches, there wouldn’t be any inducement to go to Heaven.”