My Page: Robert Struckman
How's-It-Going? Category
At An Old Millsite, Big Plans Get Put on Ice
A prominent brownfield clean-and-build project in downtown Missoula has been put on hold until the economy picks up.
The weed-infested former Champion Mill site just west of Ogren Field, the home of Missoula's minor league baseball team, has long been an example of urban blight and a symbol of the lost glory days of Montana's logging industry.
More than two years ago, local developer Kevin Mytty and finance partner Ed Wetherbee teamed with the Missoula Redevelopment Agency and others to clean the land of its minor environmental contaminants -- basically a lot of sawdust -- and transform it into a vibrant mixed-use neighborhood with houses, apartments, townhouses and space for commercial and retail tenants.
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A little over two months after getting laid off from the Missoulian, husband-and-wife reporting team Pam Podger and John Cramer have been doing OK, Podger said. I had called her for an update after I read her column in the American Journalism Review. In it, she described the tough moment she learned that both she and her husband would be out of work, immediately.
[more]“Both of us?” I sputtered.
It was all I could say when the publisher of the Missoulian, the daily newspaper in Missoula, Montana, quietly told my husband and me that we were both being laid off, effective immediately. The publisher praised our performance and told us that the decision was based on seniority. No matter our combined 50 years of experience – we were the newest staff members.
Missoula City Government
Council Discusses Speed LimitsUpdate: The Missoula City Council voted Monday night 7-5 to increase, slightly, the emphasis of council input on speed limit changes. The alteration more or less skirted the broader issue discussed below, about whether speed limits should be set by city workers or by the council members. The new wording allows the Public Works Department to change speed limits on city streets with the approval of the council. The issue arose after speed limits rose on a short section of Duncan Drive in the Rattlesnake neighborhood.
Who sets speed limits?
The Missoula City Council will hold a public hearing on how fast you can drive and other ways the city limits the way Missoulians get around by car this evening at its weekly meeting starting at 7 p.m. at the council chambers, 140 W. Pine St.
Recent changes to the speed limit on Duncan and Greenough drives in the Rattlesnake neighborhood have prompted the scrutiny. One issue is who should be setting limits, and how those should be done. Are signs enough? City engineers say no. Speed limits that contradict the engineering of the street and the needs of drivers will result in constant infractions. On the other hand, what happens when city engineers make a change that's unpopular in the neighborhood?
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Missoula City Analysis
What’s the Real Missoula: Generous Hippie or Quiet Conservative?
Missoula is a liberal town ready to shell out bucks to support its progressive ideals, or the Garden City is a dollars-and-cents conservative place, anxious to rein in government and trim taxes.
Whatever the state's perception of Missoula may be (as the state's bleeding heart, usually), the Missoula City Council has been either been split 7-5 or evenly divided -- often along classic liberal-conservative lines -- for years. And as the economic crunch continues, the debate has gotten even louder.
The most recent flare-up arose over $651,000 allotted for new dump trucks and other city vehicles. According to Mayor John Engen's office, the purchase, which the council approved on a 7-5 vote last week, fit the city's basic mission, to take care of necessities such as fixing streets while reducing long-term fuel costs. Over the last decade, while growing in size by about one-third, the city has cut unleaded gas usage by 10 percent and diesel by 8 percent.
But that's not how everyone sees it.
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The Yellowstone Club Debacle
CrossHarbor Wins Inside Track In Yellowstone Club Bankruptcy
A hard-fought struggle for control of the bankrupt Yellowstone Club ended mid-afternoon on Wednesday when a federal bankruptcy judge gave CrossHarbor Capital Partners, a Boston-based hedge fund, the right to loan the club $20 million while it reorganizes its debt - a process that will likely last until the end of April.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Ralph B. Kirscher issued his order after weeks of negotiations and three days of court testimony.
The Yellowstone Club filed for bankruptcy protection on Nov. 10, citing debts of more than $360 million, with about $311 million owed to investors assembled by international bank Credit Suisse.
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Yellowstone Club on the Ropes
Yellowstone Club Scrambles For Bailout in Bankruptcy Court
A day-long battle over the future of the bankrupt Yellowstone Club played out in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Butte Tuesday, with lender Credit Suisse desperately trying to maintain control of the property and block a financing deal from Boston-based CrossHarbor Capital. While Judge Ralph B. Kirscher did not issue an immediate ruling, he appeared highly skeptical of Credit Suisse's ability to put forward a viable proposal after an interim funding deal fell apart just before the court hearing.
Credit Suisse, one of the world's largest financial institutions, has been unable to come up with the money for a seven-figure loan package that would enable it to keep control of the club and sell the assets. The bank's plan apparently involved mothballing the club while it sought buyers -- a strategy that many involved in the case believe would be a disaster.
CrossHarbor, for its part, has proposed putting up $20 million to keep the club operating through the winter season while a long-term re-organization plan is developed. Club members, some of whom were in court Tuesday and who are understandably eager to see the club remain open, agreed to pitch in another $5 million as part of the CrossHarbor plan.
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Saga of the Super-Rich
Yellowstone Club Returns to Bankruptcy Court, to Sink Further Into Debt
As Edra Blixseth and the Yellowstone Club return to a U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Tuesday, the central questions will not revolve around paying the club's debts -- but rather miring the club deeper in red ink.
The club's lawyers filed a motion on Monday to ask U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Ralph B. Kirscher to OK a second emergency loan to keep the club operating while in bankruptcy.
Two weeks ago, the club where only the best would do didn't have enough money for propane for heat, or the shuttle to move employees to and from nearby towns, much less enough cash to actually pay those employees, even for one more day.
That's when the club filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Montana court. Chapter 11 allows a business to remain open while it makes a plan to pay its debts. The filing came in the wake of an ugly divorce between Edra Blixseth and ex-husband Tim, allegations of large-scale financial impropriety and the collapse of the high-end real estate market as well as the credit markets that funded it.
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Montana Economy
Montana Loses Jobs as Construction and Support Services DeclineMontana's unemployment rate has inched upward to a still-healthy 4.8 percent, according to the most recent figures from the Montana Department of Labor and Industry, as every sector but healthcare and hospitality services contracted.
"Overall, Montana has been weathering the economic situation pretty well," said state economist Aaron McNay. "I see Montana following a path similar to the rest of the nation."
Montana's economy, it seems, is slightly better -- or its downturn is delayed -- compared to the national economy. The national unemployment rate in October hit 6.5 percent, up 0.4 percent from the previous month. Montana's rate increased at half that rate, at 0.2 percent. Montana actually added 900 jobs, according to one set of statistics, from September to October.
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"We're closing at the end of the month, so that's how it's effecting us," said Carol Hoffnagle, who opened Studio 12 Art Gallery on Broadway and Pattee Street with her husband in downtown Missoula a little over a year ago.
"In September we felt we were just getting going," Hoffnagle added.
Over the past decade art galleries flourished and multiplied in the Mountain West, as flush tourists and new and moneyed residents in the region snatched up artwork to hang on the region's new wall space. Estimates by longtime gallery owners is that the number of galleries selling original artwork in towns like Missoula and Bozeman has roughly doubled or tripled since the late 1990s.
The abrupt collapse of the real estate industry and the national recession has brought hard times to the art galleries.
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The Tour de France might come to seem less grueling -- and certainly less murky -- than Greg LeMond's two-year legal fight against the Yellowstone Club, which he resumed this week when he asked a Montana judge to order club owner Edra Blixseth to pay him the final $13.5 million of a $21.5 million settlement, a Bloomberg story says.
The judge granted LeMond's request, but the cycling great, who won the world's top cycling race in 1986, 1989 and 1990, will have to get in line for his money. The Yellowstone Club, which Edra Blixseth only won control of in August after a long and bitter public divorce with former timber executive Tim, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Nov. 10.
In her filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Butte, Montana, Blixseth tallied the club's debts at about $350 million. The biggest liability is $307 million, not including interest, to Credit Suisse Group. The Zurich-based bank loaned the club $375 million in 2005. [more]
