Uncertainty in Missoula Manufacturing
Rumors Swirl Around Frenchtown Mill
Falling demand for cardboard boxes has prompted fresh rumors to swirl around Frenchtown's Smurfit-Stone paperboard facility about a pending closure. Company officials say the plant will stay open.
"I hope it doesn't happen," said Roy Houseman, union representative for the workers there. "But if it does, it wouldn't surprise me."
If the plant did close, it would mean the loss of about 390 jobs. The plant, which supplies cardboard box-making plants with corrugated paperboard, recently laid off 52 employees. The international manufacturing giant says it will hire those workers back at the end of the year.
"That's very possible, too," Houseman said, who was among those recently laid off.
[more]
Featured Event
Missoula Filmmakers Preview Their “Best Bar in America”
Missoula filmmakers Damon and Eric Ristau are finishing up their independent feature film Best Bar in America and you can see in the trailer above that it’s taking shape.
So much shape, in fact, that the Ristau brothers are celebrating with a preview party this weekend.
The film, starring the likes of Andrew Rizzo, David Ackroyd, Gregory Collett and Lee McAfee, showcases some of the West’s best bars and places, through the eyes of two men on a quest. Eric said this summer in an interview with New West Missoula: “One of the epiphanies of the film is that rather than it just being a room full of people drinking alcohol there is actually a deeper culture to it and a wisdom that exists in those places as the modern day campfire. It’s a place to exchange stories and a place to exchange wisdom.”
You can check it out yourself: The preview party is on Saturday, Nov. 22 at the Stensrud Building (314 N. 1st Street) from 7 to 11 p.m. (See the full listing at MissoulaEvents.Net here.)
[more]Bob Wire Has a Point (It's Under His Cowboy Hat)
‘Tis the Season for Christmas Lights and Cussing
Well, I finally got around to taking down the Christmas lights from the house last Saturday. I laid them all out in the driveway, then plugged them in and checked every bulb on each string. Then I carefully coiled them all up, sealed them in a plastic bag, and tossed them into the garbage.
I’ve been burned enough times to know that, when I put the lights back on the house in two weeks, half of the strings won’t light up. I could never see the point in replacing nine flimsy bulbs in a $3.00 string of crappy lights, so I always get mad, yank down the dead string, and replace it with a new $3.00 string. This year I figure I’ll just save myself the anguish and replace it all before I start. Hey, I’m happy to help boost the economy. Of China.
[more]
News Brief
USDA Rule Would Send Organic Dairy Cows To Pasture
The United States Department of Agriculture says organic milk cows should be sent to pasture -- at least for 120 days a year.
As Steve Karnowski reports for the Associated Press, the draft USDA rule comes after outcry about big organic milk producers that keep their animals in large feedlots, feeding them organically and producing organically, but not giving them any fresh grass or room to roam. Under the proposed rule, which is up for public comment until December 23, in order to be certified organic, milk cows must be on pasture for half of the year and 30 percent of their dry food must come from grazing.
Boulder-based Aurora Organic Dairy, which produces store brands for the likes of Wal-Mart and Safeway and Broomfield-based Horizon were at the center of the controversy. Aurora spokeswoman Sonja Tuitele tells the AP that the company is looking at the draft rules and will provide comment. As Karnowski reports, Tuitele "said the proposals don't adequately provide for inclement weather. She also said the final rules will need to take geographic differences into consideration." Horizon, on the other hand, is supportive of the proposed rule.
[more]
Missoula's Future
Downtown Master Plan Nears Completion
The master plan that's in the works for downtown Missoula will take many years to implement, but if you want to do your part today to push it along, the consultants have a suggestion for you: shop local, and, especially, shop downtown.
And while Macy's may not be locally owned, shop there too.
At the fourth and final public forum on the master plan project Wednesday night, consultants Crandall Arambula identified four top-priority projects for getting the plan rolling, and two of them indirectly involved Macy's: a new parking garage at the corner of Front and Pattee, which would allow Macy's to expand onto its existing parking lot, and a new mixed-use commercial development, including a hotel, that's envisioned for East Main just north of the store.
[more]
Weather In Missoula and Beyond
Montana’s Warm Fall May Turn Windy and Cold
The problem with unseasonable weather in Montana is the temperature is probably plummeting -- or rising -- even as you note how odd it is.
So far this fall, the weather has been warmer than usual, said meteorologist Corby Dickerson of the National Weather Service's Missoula office.
But the warmth won't last.
The "normal" high temperature for November 19 is 38 degrees Fahrenheit. The low is 23 degrees. Wednesday's high was 42 degrees. Tonight's predicted low is 30.
[more]
Update
Court Opens Mitchell Slough in Landmark Stream Access Case
For more than 20 years, the Mitchell Slough in Montana's Bitterroot Valley has become a showcase of the battle between public access and private property rights and Monday the Montana Supreme Court ruled in favor of the former.
With a 54-page ruling, the Supreme Court deemed the waterway a natural stream, which means access to it is protected by Montana's stream access law, which is among the strongest in the country. The ruling has been coming for more than two years and overturns two lower-court decisions that had defined the stream the way the Bitterroot Conservation District and several high-profile landowners had advocated it be: Just a ditch.
The case, which has been watched closely across the West as a crucial test of stream access law, has been a long-running extravaganza of protests, celebrity, and political maneuvering but more than that, it has been a spur for complex and often heated discussions on water rights, landownership, what's natural and what's not and most of all, how to square the values of the Old West with the demands of the New.
The Ravalli Republic's Perry Backus has a detailed story on yesterday's ruling here and to catch up on the case and it's implications, Greg Lemon wrote a very good primer for NewWest.Net when the case first went to the high court.
[more]
Missoula City News
Missoula Wants a Chance to Tap Its Visitors With a Tax
Rising costs and slower growth mean a municipal budget that's tighter than ever at Missoula's City Hall.
Missoula Mayor John Engen has asked department heads to cut costs, and he has planned with Alec Hansen of the Montana League of Cities and Towns to lobby for a local option sales tax at the upcoming legislative session in Helena.
"We're going to come back with the same thing we've promoted for years and years, which is the local option tourist tax," Hansen said.
[more]
Guest Column
Building the New Rural WestAs newly elected legislators prepare to join returning Westerns in the halls of Congress they have an opportunity to help build a new economy in the rural West. By supporting programs that unlock the entrepreneurial spirit of rural America, Western legislators can deliver on their promise to create opportunity for rural communities in their states. [more]
New West Missoula
The New New West MissoulaWe're very pleased to launch our new New West Missoula page - a new look and lots of new features. We'll post at greater length shortly on the thinking behind all this, but in the meantime let us know what you think. You can leave a comment here or take a brief survey here. Thanks!
