Looking back, looking forward; it's what January means

Celebrating the New Year with Some Updates

By Marjorie Smith, 12-30-06

Year end summaries and ten top story lists being de rigeur for any self-respecting journalist/columnist in the waning days of any year, I decided to look through the stories and columns I’ve contributed to NewWest to see what's happened since the stories first ran. Herewith, updates on some of the issues I’ve dealt with in the 14 months I’ve been writing for NewWest.

Blight and tax increment funding: When they first came across this idea, the Bozeman City Commission must have thought they’d found that goose that lays golden eggs. How to finance improved infrastructure without increasing taxes? Declare a neighborhood – say historic downtown Bozeman – to be blighted. Then, under the laws governing urban renewal, any increases in property tax collection can be spent on improvements for the blighted neighborhood. It actually worked well in downtown Bozeman. A vibrant downtown with a functioning water and sewer system as well as attractive street lights, sidewalks, benches and flower planters, attracts tourists and business growth and benefits the entire town. Realizing that, the school district did not complain that it was being deprived of some of the revenue it would have received had property values increased even without the improvements (as it surely would have in this boomtown.

Where the issue got controversial was when the city commission designated as blighted a neighborhood just blocks away from the one I inhabit. Coming right after the Kelo decision in the U.S. Supreme Court (which held that a local government could use the power of eminent domain to take private property from one owner and sell it to another who would create something that garnered more property taxes) many of us felt that our homes were threatened. The city commission quickly declared that there would be none of that Kelo stuff in the Bozone, but we’re still left with the issue that increased tax money that would otherwise have gone to the schools and other government needs will be spent in a small corner of the city, benefiting most directly the developers planning big projects there

Still infatuated with the tax increment goose, the city commission approved another blight designation along the North Seventh commercial strip which could certainly use some cosmetic improvement although many of us don’t think that’s something the schools, library, and streets throughout the city should be sacrificing revenue to pay for. Some folks have suggested that every neighborhood in the city could use improvements and might stand still for being called blighted if they could get the money. Others think it’s time to stop now, before we “blight” again.

Fourteen months after the neighborhood next to mine was designated blighted, how are things coming along? Well, the developers have torn down some old, funky buildings and put up billboards touting what’s to come. There’s some new pavement and sidewalks adjoining their project but the last time I looked there was no sign of construction. A committee with strong neighborhood representation is in place to decide where the increment money is to be spent once it arrive in the city coffers, but I’m guessing there hasn’t been much to spend yet.

My second story for NewWestand my second story in 2006 both dealt with Bozeman’s dearth of theater venues. In November of 2005 we were celebrating the fact that a local organization, Montana TheatreWorks, had purchased the endangered Ellen Theater on Main Street along with its step-sister across the street, the Rialto, with the eventual goal of restoring the Ellen for live productions. In the meantime, while waiting for the Carmike movie exhibitor’s lease on the Ellen to run out, MTW set out to transform the Rialto into useable performance space.

Then in January developer Dick Clotfelter announced that he was throwing in the towel in his efforts to create The Arts at City Center, a grand performing arts facility he’d proposed with much fanfare in June of 2003. Bozeman has been talking about a performing arts center ever since I returned to town in the mid ‘80s. As of today, there has been no visible action (other than the requisite large on-site billboard) on the downtown parking garage Clotfelter had called the linchpin of his project, and which was the one part of the project committed to going ahead. As for the Ellen and the Rialto – at last word, Montana TheatreWorks has sold the Rialto giving them some capital to renovate the Ellen – whenever Carmike vacates. As of yet, there is no time frame for that.

Meanwhile, our really excellent symphony orchestra and the remarkable Intermountain Opera go on using the 1100-seat Willson Auditorium, originally built to serve Gallatin County High School in the 1930s, and Montana State University persists in bringing in “Broadway” musicals to the acoustically challenged Brick Breeden Fieldhouse. As we in the performing arts consuming and producing community occasionally tell ourselves, we’re better off having excellent productions in crummy venues than if we had crummy productions in gorgeous venues.

Last January I did a story about a series of meetings the parks and recreation advisory board were having to find out how Bozeman citizens felt about dogs in city parks. (Bozeman citizens felt strongly. Both ways, pro- and anti-dog.) The major development in Bozeman’s parks since has been the complete closing off to the public for the time being of the large regional park which is in development on the western edge of town, due to extensive damage to the land and landscaping by ATV and four-wheel drivers playing in the construction dirt and damaging wetlands. (None of the vandalism was perpetrated by dogs, so far as I know.) Then the entire park project was put on hold when the county commissioners refused to dip into the open space funds to fund a facilities plan to the tune of $100,000, arguing that they had already used$2.2 million in open space funds to purchase the land for the park. Looks like this is a story to be revisited again in the new year.

Perhaps the happiest ending to an issue that haunted us for five years was the news that J.M. Huber Corporation has dropped its suit against Gallatin County for the denial of zoning variances that would have allowed Huber to drill for coalbed methane atop Bozeman Pass. It’s an area the company (which I call the Hubris Corporation) had apparently failed to notice was full of luxury homes built by people who could afford to protect their nearly pristine environment. Even those of us with very little money to spare had been so offended by the Hubris folks’ – well, hubris, – that over the years we contributed to the fund to defend against the drilling. I just got a letter from the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, which had looked after the donated funds, telling me they’d used only 20 percent of the money donated and I needed to decide what they should do with the remaining 64 dollars I’d given. (I told GYC to split the money evenly between itself and the Bridger Canyon Property Owners Association which had led the charge against Huber.)

In March I wrote what I calledA Sentimental Ode to Farmland in which I bemoaned the accelerating subdividing and paving with streets and houses of what my agricultural economist father had assured me was the richest agricultural land in Montana. Wherever our food comes from in the future, I wrote, it won’t be the Gallatin Valley. But within three days in this last week of the year there were announcements of five tracts of agricultural lands put into trusts, three with help from the open space bond voted by Gallatin County voters and two financed entirely by the landowners themselves. So at least we’ll always have some agricultural scenes to enjoy here even if there are not enough local products to feed our exploding population.

In May I wrote about the five-year project of some concerned Bozemanites to organize a cultural council. I theorized that the efforts were about to come to fruition, in part thanks to the appearance of some cultural bureaucrats from out of town who caused all the Bozeman representatives to band together in opposition to them. Update? Well, I paid my membership money and I assume several other individuals and organizations did too, whereupon the council took a break for the summer. I have heard almost nothing from the group since.

In June I wrote about the Montana Highway Department’s grandiose plans for improving North Rouse Avenue, plans that would involve complete removal of several small homes and rob others of any semblance of a yard. Since then the highway department has scaled back its plans a bit – referring to a three-lane road to link up with Bridger Canyon Road instead of their original five-lane freeway. Meanwhile the fancy new home cuddled in between the existing two-lane road and the creek that gave me hope that the highway department’s dreams might be stymied (remember the ability of owners of expensive homes to protect their environment exemplified in the coalbed methane case) has been featured in the December issue of the Bozeman Chronicle’s elegant “At Home” magazine. I suppose it’s too early to apply for a historic listing?

Early last January I delved into a mystery that had affected my quality of life – the disappearance of the voice of general manager Marvin Granger from the Yellowstone Public Radio airwaves. () I learned that Marvin had been suspended (with pay) for several months by MSU-Billings for not abiding by all their personnel policies. Marvin served his time in off-the-air purgatory and was back on the radio a month or two after my article appeared. (He confided that he’d finally had time to catch up on his reading during his paid suspension.) Then at some point in the past few months, Marvin quietly retired and long-time program director Lois Bent – who had filled in for Marvin during his suspension – moved into the general manager slot. But don’t feel bad if you haven’t noticed it this time. They kept Marvin’s voice on a lot of the station ID messages and he still shows up every Thursday and Friday evening with his sidekick Ken Siebert to discuss issues of the day with the radio-addicted public on “Your Opinion Please.” He was also there for the traditional classical music “name that tune” quiz during the October pledge drive. Yes, public broadcasting can change the voices we addicts spend our days with – but it’s better to do it gradually.

Another public broadcasting mystery is attached to a story I did last summer about the retirement of Jack Hyyppa, founding general manager of Montana Public Television. MontanaPBS appears to be still going strong despite the mysterious disappearance of James Baum, named as Hyyppa’s replacement in May and who took over on July 1. If you go to the MontanaPBS website you find Paul “Gomez” Routhier listed as general manager but he’s not listed in MSU’s faculty and staff directory. Neither is Baum. The best evidence I have of the survival of the Bozeman half of the MontanaPBS partnership (beyond the evidence of my own eyes each time I turn on my television set) are the promos for a new episode of “11th and Grant with Eric Funk,” the excellent performing arts program launched last year which was, come to think of it, the brainchild of Paul “Gomez” Routhier, at the time a volunteer working at the station. Ah, well, what would a new year be without new stories to track down?

This fall I wrote about the winding down of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial, disagreeing with some critics who called it a bust because the hordes of tourists predicted by Stephen Ambrose (Undaunted Courage) never materialized. I maintain that we got good reminders of important history during the bicentennial and some really wonderful permanent interpretive facilities. The next big challenge for Montana history buffs will be soon when the Montana Legislature will be asked to renew funding for the Montana Heritage Commission which runs Virginia City and Nevada City as well as the recently adopted Reeder’s Alley in Helena. Buying VC and Nevada City ten years ago may have been the most far-sighted step our state has taken since the adoption 34 years ago of our constitution. Wonderful relics of the Montana gold rush were saved from being carted away piecemeal as conversation pieces for superwealthy western wannabes around the world – now let’s do what we can to keep them from falling down!

The most controversial subjects I’ve written about recently werethe new Bozeman Public Library and the Ten Commandments monument in Soroptomist Park. If you’re asking in astonishment “How can a library be controversial?” you just don’t know Bozeman. The library has been recording well over a thousand visitors each day since it opened on November 12. As for the Ten Commandments, the city commission has voted four to one that they should be replaced in the park, but the controversy surrounding the issue will surely slop over into the new year. I’ve got to wonder how many of the people who are so indignant about the monument being moved from the park have actually read the commandments recently. Many of those rules seem like awfully good and even necessary ideas for any civilization, but some of them sound a little weird. How strict do the pro-monument folks want us to be about keeping the Sabbath, for instance? Or not lying? Not coveting what my neighbor has? It doesn’t say not taking what he has. Well it does, but that’s in a different commandment. It says not wanting what he has. I thought this country’s economy was based on keeping up with the Joneses.

And which of the many versions of the commandments properly represent our community? Did you know that even the numbering of the commandments differs between Jewish, Catholic, and some Protestant versions? As I said, stay tuned to see what happens in Bozeman.


And finally, updates on a couple of other stories I’ve posted:the MSU gamelan will be gearing up for another semester of happy banging on exotic percussion instruments next month andthe Awesome Polka Babes are still getting together to annoy the neighbors on a regular basis.


Happy New Year.

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