2015 State of the Community

On Monday, Feb. 9, Missoula area leaders gathered to discuss the annual State of the Community. Each year, the Mayor of Missoula, University of Montana President and the Chair of the Missoula County Commissioners meet to share events of the year past and what the public can expect in the year ahead. The following text is taken from Commissioner Bill Carey's speech. For more information, please view the event pamphlet.

Thank you to City Club for hosting this get together today and for providing this forum throughout the year for opportunities to inform ourselves on matters of critical importance to the well-being of our community.

I’m honored to be here on behalf of Missoula County and to have the chance to talk a bit about some of the activities the County is engaged in now and will be into the future.  This event also, of course, provides a fine opportunity to listen and to learn from you.

Some background: Missoula County consists of around 2,600 hundred square miles in the Rocky Mountains of Western Montana.  The County stretches from the north of Condon, all the way south nearly to Florence in the Bitterroot Valley.  The County’s population is 112,000; 39% of the population has a bachelor’s degree or higher.

The County employs approximately 700 people and carries its own Worker’s Comp and Benefits Plans. It is governed by a three member Board of County Commissioners who each serve 6 year staggered terms.  The commissioners are responsible for the overall operations and assets of the County but we can’t tell other elected officials how to run their departments.  As an administrative arm of the State we can’t make laws or officially pass judgment on them.  We can do what the Legislature says we can do - nothing more or less.  

I must say, however, that despite these restraints, we do very well in a lot of areas that help make our community a safe, healthy and economically robust place to call home.

Missoula County has consistently and creatively supported economic development activities in all shapes and sizes.  Recent developments in Bonner at the former Stimson mill site provide a good example.

In 2012 and 2014, we created two economic development districts in Bonner. The new tax dollars generated beyond the base year in these districts are invested in improvements within the respective districts. This approach works very well as business growth in Bonner continues to build momentum.

The trailer manufacturer, ALCOM, continues to grow and add jobs. Harris Manufacturing anticipates employing a work force of 35 new, high quality jobs over the next two years.  Other companies that have been welcomed to the district are Northwest Paints, Kettlehouse Brewing Co., Bonner Transfer and Storage and Montainer.

Willis Enterprises is another example of a remarkably innovative company who found a market for previously unmarketable logs and who now creates an additional 150 jobs in our community beyond their own employees. These new businesses, taken together, have brought 250 new jobs to Bonner in the last two years and we anticipate up to 400 new jobs by the end of this year.

The County partners with other organizations to help promote and guide economic growth. The Missoula Economic Partnership, or “MEP,” for example, has played an instrumental role in helping businesses locate in Bonner.

The Bitterroot Economic Development District, or “BREDD,” has helped a number of these businesses apply for Big Sky Trust Fund dollars to assist their fledgling enterprises. 41 companies, including Rivertop Renewables and Submittal, have benefited from BREDD’s expertise. In just the past few years, BREDD’s grant writing has brought in over $6 million dollars in direct support to businesses in Missoula County.

(Commissioner Jean Curtiss, by the way, led the effort to create BREDD several years ago and continues to sit on its Board.)

Missoula County recognizes the need to fairly and responsibly regulate growth. An updated County wide growth policy is in the works and with the help of our dedicated staff at our Community and Planning Services Department; we will protect the environment and other key values we share as individuals and as a community.

Coupled with this growth policy effort is the pending “Industrial Lands Needs Assessment Report” which will help us evaluate our existing industrial infrastructure and outline a process for ensuring that future economic development will occur in a time, place and manner that works best for us. This Report is a collaborative project with the County, MEP and BREDD all partnering up.

Of course, adopted policies are only as effective as their implementation. The County is committed to bringing our zoning, shoreline, flood plain and subdivision regulations up to standards that meet the needs of our community and still provide a cost effective and efficient permitting process.

Our subdivision regulations re-write project will be entering its second public input process this Spring, with our shoreline regulations scheduled to begin public review in March and April. We hope you will participate in these meetings because, we do, in fact, carefully listen to what you have to say.

Attempting to fulfill constituency needs and aspirations sometimes present difficult challenges, especially when we are not in control of our destiny. Like all levels of government we are facing fiscal realities that could negatively impact the high levels of service our citizens rightfully expect from us. A case in point is the failure of Congress to reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools Act which historically has provided significant funding for Counties to maintain and improve their roads. This mystifying failure has led to a brutal shortfall in revenues for Missoula County as well as counties in 42 of the 50 states.

We can take the hit this year by backfilling the shortfall with reserves and various one-time cost savings in the Public Works Department’s budget, but we’re talking about $389,000, and that is a big hole to fill. Congress must find a long-term solution to this impending melt down. (Missoulian editorial)

Another on-going challenge we face is that the cost of delivering essential public services keeps going up, even as pressure to increase wages, maintain benefits and pay our bills continues to outpace the creation of newly taxable property. Something, eventually, has to give.

On a brighter, more upbeat note, I would like to just briefly mention a particularly successful program the County supports – the Nurse-Family Partnership.

The City-County Health Department launched the Nurse-Family Partnership in September 2012. The program connects public health nurses with first time mothers living in poverty. It provides assistance in planning for a healthy pregnancy and birth, obtaining information on housing and health services and learning about the different stages of child development. The ‘Partnership’ now serves up to 50 at-risk families in Missoula County.

I’m told that every dollar invested in this program yields 6 dollars in return through cost savings from other publicly supported programs. In Montana alone, the cost savings to the state and federal government is in the neighborhood of $20,000 by the child’s 18^th birthday. The Health Department proudly reports that the first client to graduate from the Nurse-Family Partnership will do so this month.    

As part of this year’s budget, the Board of County Commissioners reinforced our dedication to serve the community by investing in enhanced communication efforts. Later this year when you go to the Missoula County homepage, you will find a user friendly and enriched website.

The public has expressed their concerns about accessing information and they report often having difficulties navigating our thousands of pages of content. This will no longer be the case. The site will open with beautiful images as provided by local photographers and artists. Pages, forms and directories will be organized strictly with the public’s need as the focus.  We know you are looking for important information and we will make it available in the clearest, most transparent and visually appealing manner possible.

The County is also investing in moving to the cutting edge of the ever-changing world of communications. We know you don’t just read the daily newspaper anymore and call it good. With this in mind, the County will also be launching County-wide social media platforms and a blog to better serve you by sharing accurate and timely information as we receive it.

All of our efforts, whether in communications, economic development, public health, and so on, are motivated by the desire to improve our quality of life both now and into the future  Our County employees, therefore, take exceptional pride in their work.

The arrival of newly elected officials and new leadership throughout the County will no doubt bring fresh ideas and new approaches to solving problems.

I’m looking forward to an invigorating future in service to the public.

Thank you. 

Chair of the Missoula County Commissioners, Bill Carey, presenting his speech at the State of the Community event on Feb. 9, 2015.