By Michael Howell and Jean Schurman
Lt. Governor Mike Cooney was in the Bitterroot Valley last Thursday for a tour of a couple of the businesses and one of the towns that have benefited from the state’s various economic development programs.
In Hamilton he stopped in at FreightMonster, Inc. and handed over a check for $625,000. $400,000 of that was economic development money from the Community Development Block Grant program and the other $225,000 was a grant from the Big Sky Trust Fund. The funding is tied to job production goals. FreightMonster, Inc. currently employs about 120 people and operates as a collection of businesses including TechMonster, Streamline LLC, Western Data Recovery, and Griz Wireless.
According to Larry Lockhart Jr., president of the company, FreightMonster started as a trucking business but has branched out into software production designed for transportation companies, cell phone sales and repair and data recovery.
The building houses five businesses: FreightMonster, Tech Monster, Streamline LLC, Western Data Recovery, and Griz Wireless. FreightMonster handles freight shipping and logistic services for the trucking industry across the nation. This includes heavy haul transport, flatbed trucking, government shipping and ocean shipping. Tech Monster has tied into this by writing software to enhance and make the shipping process more efficient. The company is about to launch a new heavy haul program that Lockhart said will transform the industry.
One area of the building is devoted to computer data recovery, building and repair, as well as cell phone repair. Lockhart and company recently opened Griz Wireless that goes along with the cell phone repair part of the business. It is licensed to use the Griz logo and they hope this will bring in the University of Montana crowd.
“We have a good team here,” said Lockhart. “We’ve created real jobs for real people right here in the valley.”
Cooney also visited B.E. Forest Products located in the Stevensville light industrial Tax Increment Finance District on the north end of town. The company, owned by Jim Edinger and Nathan and Lindsay Bean, makes custom lumber products. The company received $622,750 from the Montana CDBG and Big Sky Trust Fund to help finance the purchase of a building and equipment enabling them to expand business operations, preserving six jobs and creating up to 30 new ones. Employees earn over $15.28 per hour and the company covers 75% of employee health care costs.
Limited by lack of infrastructure, particularly related to sewer issues, Stevensville was on the verge of losing the businesses it had on the north edge of town when the state stepped in and helped fund a sewer main extension to the area. In the process a Tax Increment Financing District was established which now contains some thriving businesses.
Cooney said that both FreightMonster and B.E. Forest Products were growing and developing at an exciting rate. He said that the Bitterroot Valley was very lucky to have the economic development agency it has. He said when talking to both these businesses they told him they had not known of the potential aid that was available for business development until they were made aware by Ravalli County Economic Development Authority and then probably wouldn’t have been able to get through the process without the aid of RCEDA.
“These businesses are innovative in their approach and are preparing for future opportunities for growth and the state is looking for ways to help them,” said Cooney.
Cooney also attended the ribbon cutting ceremony at the Town of Stevensville’s wastewater discharge facility. The Town was celebrating the completion of a million dollar sewage treatment plant upgrade that was ninety percent funded by a grant from the Treasure State Endowment Program.
“When people work together you can get a lot of things done,” said Cooney. “These improvements will make a big difference for all the residents of the town as they move forward into the future.” Cooney said the facility was now a state-of-the-art facility in terms of providing for a healthier environment and was ahead of most towns in the Bitterroot in this respect.
Long time town employee Ed Sutherlin said he’s worked for the town for 37 years and can say that nothing at the facility that was in use when he arrived is being used anymore except one large above ground tank that is still being used but not for the same purpose.
“The tanks, the old drying beds and clarifier, the old oxidation ditch, they are all gone,” said Sutherlin.
According to former Mayor Gene Mim Mack, who shepherded most of the improvement project through, the first major improvement in the system was the installation of the ultra-violet disinfection treatment building in 2011.
Then, following the sewer main extension project out to the TIF district, the town was looking at improving the headworks building at the sewer plant. But that led to an analysis of the facility’s needs for a projected five or ten years that brought up other issues. At the same time the state announced that it was looking at raising the standards for wastewater discharge into the river.
Engineering and consulting firm HDR was hired to analyze the issues and come up with a phased plan to make needed improvements and meet the new requirements in one big project. A grant proposal was prepared and submitted to USDA Rural Development and a TSEP grant/loan package was awarded.
Mim Mack said it was a very good deal, with 75% of the funding coming from grants and 25% from very low interest loans which were available at the time.
“That kept the rate structure largely unchanged and saved the town about $800,000 on bonding costs for the project,” said Mim Mack.
Mim Mack said that the primary reason that the funding for the project went so well was that, under his administration, the town was able to catch up on three years of back audits that were not performed and demonstrate that the town was credit worthy.
“With completion of these projects the town should be positioned well to exceed the wastewater discharge permit requirements well into the future,” said Mim Mack. “This is a benefit, not only to the water and sewer customers, but a major improvement to the quality of the Bitterroot River.”
