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Preserving Eden

Editor's Note: As the City of Bozeman and Gallatin County undertake the monumental tasks of steering growth in the Gallatin Valley and beyond, a renewed responsibility falls on the valley's citizens to become part of the process to ensure their property rights, make their values heard and preserve the economies, community spirit and environmental values that make living here so great. In this ongoing series on NewWest.Net/Bozeman, Susan Duncan begins a new discussion on redefining the relationship between rural and urban. As Duncan explains, the two are mutually dependent.

It’s the $64,000 question. The query everybody wants the answer to: “What can we do to keep this place the ‘Eden’ that it is?”

Want to see a real leader on this issue? Look in the mirror. It is time for each one of us to step up to the plate and lead. [more]

Selling the Dream

Yellowstone Club, the controversial pinnacle of luxury vacation home communities located near Big Sky, Montana, is up for sale -- the result of an increasingly bitter divorce between the club's CEO Tim Blixseth and his wife Edra.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports the Blixseths are in negotiations to sell with real-estate and private-equity firm Crossharbor Capital, run by longtime Yellowstone Club member Samuel Byrne. Sources in the WSJ story say initial discussions are valuing the club at somewhere between $400 and $600 million.

As Tim and Edra Blixseth divvy up $2 billion worth of assets including private jets, cars and property (slightly higher stakes than sorting traditional relationship spoils like T-shirts, TVs and albums), the embattled husband eloquently described himself in an email to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle as "the dreamer who was fortunate enough to see his dream come to life, and to also see it continued and fully fulfilled in the original way it was dreamed." [more]

The 'Next Aspen': Part V

Where do I look for the soul of Aspen? Among the snowboarders chowing greasy sandwiches at Johnnie McGuire’s deli? In Gucci, where handbags sell for thousands? At the foot of Aspen Mountain, where fans rings cowbells to cheer women’s World Cup racers?

Resort towns invariably look at Aspen as the Glitter Gulch they don’t want to become. But as the resort economy sucks them in, they look to Aspen for the way out. The town they considered the devil becomes their guardian angel.

Before I end my search for the "next Aspen," I guess I better stop in at the first Aspen. [more]

The 'Next Aspen': Part II

A pageant of Western small-town politics plays out in front of the American flag draped across the American Legion hall. Center stage are the developers: the savvy investor, the respected local architect with solid green credentials. Their backdrop, a series of slick poster boards outlining plans to convert 77 acres on the edge of Ketchum, Idaho from a defunct golf course into a five-star hotel and housing development.

Stage left sit the planning and zoning commissioners, who moved the meeting from City Hall to this wood-paneled meeting room to allow for over 100 town residents to fill the space to standing-room only. Audience members take their turn to speak, one by one. They are, like the town itself, split down the middle on the project.

I am driving across the Rockies in search of the "next Aspen," whatever that means. "Aspenization" is seen as either a blessing or a curse in ski towns. Ketchum, it's both. [more]

Power Politics or Reigning in Government?

Not long ago, Tim Watson led a successful petition campaign to suspend Park County’s first growth policy and put it to an up-or-down vote in 2008. Now, Watson is leading another petition, this time to unseat Commissioner Larry Lahren.

In the accepted petition proposal, Watson and attorney Mark Hartwig accuse Lahren of admittedly failing to keep commission minutes and failing to provide notice of commission meetings. Lahren says his commission was working to correct inherited problems and he attributes the petition to “power politics” and outstanding grudges over issues involving the growth policy and county refuse.

Though Watson insists the recall petition is unrelated, it is hard to ignore the overarching and contentious issue of balancing zoning and planning with private property rights in this rapidly growing rural county.

Such a confrontation is not the only one occurring in similar Western counties. [more]

Counting Blessings

For over seven years, Rev. Paul Thomas has tirelessly provided Bozeman’s homeless and down-and-out with a meal, a cup of coffee, clothing, company and any other kind of help he can through his mobile soup kitchen named HIS Soup. Thomas’ white Econoline van and those who flock to it are fixtures on the east and north parts of a town that has never had an official homeless shelter or mission. This month Thomas received a permit to create a historic rescue mission in the very same place he serves his complimentary home-cooked Thanksgiving meals.

Not so long ago, Bozeman police used to “float” homeless residents and transients by buying them a ticket on the next Greyhound out of town. City officials say they haven’t floated anyone for many years, but when a homeless man froze to death in a U-haul truck here last winter, the homeless issue became hard to ignore and elicited a strong community response.

Bozeman, “the most livable place,” is the only major city in Montana to not have a homeless shelter or rescue mission, but thanks to Thomas and his supporters, this is about to change. [more]

Philanthropy and Community Building

Park County Community Foundation (PCCF) board members and a diverse array of interested parties met for two days this week at the Mountain Sky Guest Ranch in Paradise Valley to discuss the future of the young philanthropic organization.

Over 80 attendees attended Monday and about 60 on Tuesday for strategic community building sessions with Bliss Browne of Imagine Chicago. The groups focused on growth, demographic and economic trends in the West to identify the best ways to involve all citizens in community development, especially in the areas of education, youth empowerment and poverty reduction. With Park County growing and more and more wealthy people buying second and third homes in the area, the group hoped to effectively reach out to potential donors to help address the county’s needs, such as reducing an 11.4 percent poverty rate.

David Eaton, vice president of the PCCF board of directors, emphasized the group’s role in engaging and serving the community’s needs: “This is just a first step…Our intent is to keep you guys really involved and continually getting knowledge for your community.” [more]

More Growing Pains in Montana's first Capital

Citizens in Montana’s Madison County again find themselves facing a vote on whether or not to significantly expand their courthouse, law and justice center and jail in the county seat, Virginia City.

Several lawsuits have been filed against the county because of the inadequacies in the jail and courthouse, and county officials say those lawsuits are only part of the reason they are still pushing for the new center. Last November voters turned down a bond to fund the new law and justice center. Contending the significant need for expansion had not changed, the county adjusted the design of the expansion and redoubled their efforts to fund the project through a mail-out ballot for a $10 million bond, which began arriving in voters’ mailboxes on September 18, 2007.

The new center would be built on historic Virginia City’s main street, which has raised the ire of many citizens. Commissioners argue the planning and design of the project are not only sensitive to the historic character of Virginia City, but will also help protect important historic records and preserve the town’s vitality. Some citizens are demanding the county go back to the drawing board and have launched a campaign against the bond in one more manifestation of the growing pains in Madison County and Montana’s first territorial capital, Virginia City. [more]

Rural Healthcare

Striving to meet the needs of this growing valley, the Madison Valley Hospital and Clinic broke ground on the construction of an over $10 million hospital in Ennis this past Tuesday. Well over 100 people attended the ceremony at the construction site adjacent to the existing and humble Madison Valley Clinic, including Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer and representatives from the offices of Senators Baucus and Tester as well as Rep. Rehberg.

Governor Schweitzer spoke briefly at the beginning of the ceremony, calling Madison County “one of the most vibrant communities in Montana.” However, Schweitzer’s comments related to healthcare were limited to emphasizing the importance of the health of a community and that “the best healthcare is the healthcare that’s closest to your family.”

When pressed after his speech on what is being done to improve healthcare in Montana’s other less vibrant communities—in particular, communities that do not benefit from as many tourist dollars as Madison County, such as in eastern Montana and in the state’s seven Indian reservations—Schweitzer responded, “The best thing we can do for every one of these communities is to grow jobs” with things like biodiesel and “clean coal” technology. [more]

Immigration's New Face

Tonight at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, a prayer vigil will be held for Elvira Arellano, the 32-year-old Mexican immigrant who since her arrest and deportation last week has swiftly become a symbol of the human tragedy surrounding U.S. immigration policy.

Arellano was picked up by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement last week in Los Angeles after leaving the Chicago church where she had sought sanctuary a year before. Now staying in Tijuana, Mexico, separated from her eight-year-old son Saulito, who was born in the U.S., she has become a celebrity in the Hispanic immigrant community and is said to be planning a series of media appearances and demonstrations to demand change in U.S. immigration policies.

Arellano's supporters have portrayed her as a Mexican Rosa Parks, but her story is more complicated than that. [more]

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