Joseph J. Adams, Economic Development Advisor for the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Senator Max Baucus, gave a power point presentation to the County Commissioners and attending public last Monday about the impacts on Montanans of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Called “The Jobs Bill”, the Act aims to pump about $789 billion in stimulus funds into the American economy. According to Adams, $285 billion comes in the form of tax breaks for businesses, individuals, and energy related projects. $311 billion will come in the form of discretionary spending for education and infrastructure. Another $193 billion will come in mandatory spending for health care and unemployment insurance. He said that it would save and create about 3.5 million jobs nationwide by the end of 2010. 11,100 of those jobs would be in Montana.

Out of the total $789 billion, Montana will receive about $626 million.

The money coming to the state is being funneled through existing state programs and breaks down to:

Montana Highway funding: $211.8 million
Montana transit formula funding: $15.6
Montana Stabilization Fund: $148.7
(assists states and local government for education, public safety, etc.)
Montana Water Systems: $39.2
Montana Pell Grants: $78.85
US Department of Education funding for Montana: $74.8
Montana education technology: $3.2
Montana energy and weatherization programs: $52.7
Housing in Montana: $32.7
Montana Child Care and development block grants: $5.7
Montana Community Services Block Grants: $4.5
Montana Food Assistance: $51.2
Montana’s drug task forces & community justice funding: $6.5
US Department of Labor grants for Montana: $8.8

Other national funding tied to the Act that may also affect Montana. That would include $1 billion going to the Bureau of Reclamation for water and environmental infrastructure, $4.6 billion to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, $750 million to the National Park Service, $1.15 billion to the U. S. Forest Service (which includes $500 million for wildfire management), and $2.5 billion for tribal projects. Verterans Administration facilities will receive $1.2 billion.

In a letter to Montana’s small business owners Baucus claims the Jobs Bill funds a variety of programs and tax cuts to help small businesses get access to cash or credit. He said that small businesses in Montana will be eligible for a portion of the $3 billion in rural business loans and grants through the USDA rural business program; $2.5 billion in distance learning, telemedicine, and broadband programs, $150 million for Economic Development Assistance programs, and $100 million for Community Development Financial Institutions.

Baucus urges small businesses in the state to check and see if they qualify for incentives to hire unemployed veterans, a delay of taxes due on certain cancellation of debt income, extension of bonus depreciation, and extension of enhanced small business expensing, that is included in the Act.

He said that, in addition, the Jobs Bill contains changes to the Small Business Administration to help businesses keep their doors open and their employees on the job.

Adams said that the changes at SBA include a new program to offer “stabilization loans” of up to $35,000 to small businesses to help them weather the economic storm. A separate but related program would offer micro-loans of up to $35,000 for qualifying businesses.

$180 million is coming to the state for local government. That comes to about $10 million for Ravalli County

Adams said that since Montana is one of the few states not operating at a deficit it will have more discretion over spending the federal money than the 46 states that are operating at a deficit.

A businessman from Gallatin Valley who operates a real estate, housing and wireless internet business said that his company recently lost its line of credit and can’t seem to get any help through the SBA. He said that three banks had told him they do not like doing business with the SBA. It was too much paper work and too much trouble, they said. A fourth told him that if they couldn’t do the loan themselves they would not take it to the SBA.

The businessman said that collateral was the problem. He said that he was told “perpetual income” could be considered collateral. He said that he had paying customers, but was told that would work so long as his customers could not get out of the contracts. He said that was not possible. He said that he could get a refinance on his home, but nothing on his business that helps him make his home mortgage payments.

Adams said that those kinds of problems are not unique.

“It’s no secret that the SBA is not working. We know that SBA is not working, especially in Montana,” said Adams. But he said that changes are being made and could come into effect in a few weeks, opening up loans of up to $35,000 for small business “stabilization” and other “micro loans.”

Another member of the public, a certified appraiser from Hamilton, expressed concerns that money needs to be made available for enforcement in the area of fraudulent appraisals. He said that the planned separation between loan officers and the banks’ appraisal operations does not really address the problem. That plan calls for banks to use a third party appraisal service. But that could lead to simply using the cheapest, quickest appraisers with no oversight of their activity, he said.

Floodplain regulations tied to cost of insurance

By Michael Howell

Ever wonder what the County’s Floodplain Administrator does? Ever wonder why there is a County Floodplain Administrator?

Ravalli County Floodplain Administrator Laura Hendrix explained it all to the County commissioners last month. It goes back to the establishment of the National Flood Insurance Program in 1968.

Floods are the number one natural disaster in the nation. They are also the most widespread in their effects. The idea was that with some sort of regulation against building in flood prone areas along streams and rivers that that homeowners building in safe areas could enjoy lower flood insurance costs while those building in flood prone areas would pay more. In 1973 the act was modified. It requires that all homes financed through federally backed loans be required to obtain flood insurance. Montana entered the program in 1971 and Ravalli County followed in 1977.

In order to adopt its own regulations the county’s regulations have to meet or exceed the federal and state regulations. Ravalli County adopted its own flood plain regulations in 1982. They were revised in 1998.

To participate in the federal insurance program, the county needs to identify flood hazard areas and restrict building in those areas. In 1995 the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation adopted a flood plain study of the Bitterroot River which outlined these hazard areas along the river. In 1998 delineations for the East and West Forks were added. So far no floodway delineations have been adopted for any of the tributaries to the river.

Hendrix told the commissioners that flood hazard areas are at the greatest risk of flooding. In those areas there is a 26 percent chance over a period of 30 years that any construction will be flooded out. She said that the chance of a fire, for instance, would be about 4 percent over 30 years.

The 100-year flood plain is actually an area calculated by elevation above the average river level that has a 1 percent chance of flooding in any given year. The last recorded 100-year flood event was in Missoula in 1899. The last 50-year events in the Bitterroot were in 1972 and 1974. The last 10-year event was in 1997.

The floodway is determined by a model that calculates the area that would be used to discharge a 100-year flood event.

“The floodplain maps we use are just a guideline,” said Hendrix, “The true determination is based on elevation and people may appeal for re-designation of the floodway based on the results of an actual survey.”

Hendrix said that any construction in a designated floodway is prohibited. But some other activities may be allowed but require a permit.

“Just digging a hole in the ground in the floodplain would require a permit,” said Hendrix. The permit costs $500 and must go through a public notice and review process.

Hendrix said that the county has issued about 20 to 24 permits per year on average, but the amount has dropped drastically in the last few years. Sixteen permits were issued in 2005. That dropped to three in 2008 and three so far in 2009. She said that the floodplain map has been amended based on elevation surveys six to nine times each year. She said that only one permit has been denied in the last six years. She said that the county is currently dealing with three active alleged violations of the permitting system in court. And there are several pending potential violations yet to be investigated.

Hendrix said that if the county failed to implement and enforce the regulations that county residents would lose the ability to participate in the federal flood insurance program.

County jumps at stimulus funds

By Michael Howell

Like a hungry trout going for a fly, County officials jumped out of the water on Friday to come up with a preferred project that might qualify for $297,866.91 in economic stimulus funds rolling in from the federal government. The commissioners had one morning to come up with a qualifying project, according to an e-mail received late Thursday afternoon from the Montana Association of Counties (MACO). Without a lot of time to deliberate, the commissioners chose to submit a road rehabilitation project on Ambrose Creek Road for use of the funds.

The county received an e-mail at 3:21 pm on Thursday from MACO asking for specific projects from each county for use of $180 million in stimulus funding which was dedicated to counties and municipalities in the state. The Commissioners were told that an answer was needed by the next day, Friday, at noon.

In the e-mail, executive director of MACO, Harold Blattie, said that he and Alec Hansen, executive director of the Montana League of Cities and Towns, were approached by state legislators about stimulus funds.

“We were told that to be allowed by the feds, there must be a list of specific projects meeting certain criteria. We responded we would not get into a situation where we were being asked to choose what projects should be funded in any manner that would pit county against county and city against city. The legislators understood the situation and then told us to come up with a specific dollar amount for each city and county, using whatever method we wanted, then have each city and county nominate a single project or multiple projects to expend the dollar allocation for each…and have the information collected yesterday!!!” states the e-mail.

Blattie did not return phone calls from the Bitterroot Star on Monday.

The MACO executive committee determined that the fairest and most equitable method would be for each county to receive $100,000 (which would total $5.6 million), plus an allocation based upon the current gas tax formula to get the $10 million. Based on that formula Ravalli County will receive $297,866.91.

The four municipalities in the valley are slated to receive money as well. Hamilton will receive close to $87,000 and has listed the reconstruction of 10th Street by the Hospital as its top priority. Work on Pine Street and State Street was listed as a secondary priority. Stevensville will receive about $37,000 to $40,000; Darby around $20,000; and Pinesdale from $19,000 to $23,000.

Commissioner Greg Chilcott, who serves on the Board of MACO, said that the Ambrose Creek Road project was chosen because it was on the county’s priority list, was a going concern and was ready to be done.

Asked about the short time frame for selecting a project Chilcott said it was due to the way the legislature decided to handle things.

“ I’m sympathetic to the legislature trying to sort this out,” he said, “they are trying to do the right thing.”

Commissioner J.R. Iman said that there was really no reason for picking the Ambrose Creek Road project other than it was a project that was on the list to be done and the cost of the project matched the funding that was being offered. He said there were other road projects that may have a higher priority, but they are complicated by ties to other agencies and jurisdictions. He said the Ambrose Creek Road project was “shovel ready” and the cost matched the funding.

Another Commissioner, Kathleen Driscoll, who is feeling a bit left out in the hasty process, said that she thinks the decision was deserving of more consideration. She said some public notice might have been appropriate and maybe even required and she would have appreciated some chance for the public to participate. She said that she had several ideas about how to use the funds that included projects at the county museum, the Fairgrounds, or the new park area on Kurtz Lane.

Driscoll also said that she had trouble understanding how a road project like this was going to create jobs, which is what the stimulus is supposed to be about. She said that the Ambrose Creek Road project, which involves overlaying about 4.5 miles, represents over half the work done by the Road Department in all of 2008 in which only about 6.5 miles of road were overlayed.

Darby group plans to interview businesses on needs and niches

What needs do businesses in and around Darby have that they must go outside the valley, the state or even the country to fill? What niches remain open and waiting for a new business in the south county? When a need is identified and a community begins to act on it, a vision emerges and with it a plan that is by design, not default. Another way to describe what is beginning in Darby and the south county is Asset Based Community Development. Bobbie Roos, MSU Ravalli County Agriculture Extension Agent, serves as a community coach for the Horizons Program working on projects to develop the South Ravalli County economy and fight poverty.

What’s needed, said Roos, is a way to reach out to local businesses and see what they need and what they can’t find available locally, and from that begin seeking new businesses or helping the expansion of existing ones that can “grow jobs and keep the dollars flowing locally, instead of leaving for distant places,” she explained.

Ron Birkle, a member of the Darby Horizons Project's Business Group, explained that the idea is to “learn what’s out there, what do businesses need, what do they know or need to know” in southern Ravalli County. But the cost of a mailing to each of the area’s 2,065 mail addresses is pretty well prohibitive, he noted.

The group met at the Darby Library on March 18 with County Commissioner Kathleen Driscoll and Julie Foster, executive director of the Ravalli County Economic Development Authority, to see if they might work together, and found the meshing of ideas productive.

Foster is already working on the state-financed BEAR—Business Expansion and Retention—Program in Ravalli County. For more than a year, she and a small number of trained volunteers have been interviewing business owners in the county with an eye to getting the same kind of information the Darby Horizons Group is seeking. But with few volunteers, it has been slow going, Foster said.

“So why not put the two programs together,” she suggested.

With only a half-dozen interviewers and a large county’s worth of people to contact, the BEAR program would benefit from some more interviewers. BEAR would train them, said Foster, and the training is not that difficult.

“If this program does what our group wants to do, that’s fine,” said Birkle.

So, by unanimous consent, the Darby Horizons Business Group concluded it would work with the BEAR Program and Ravalli County EDA on strengthening the South County economy.

“But we still need more volunteers, now, especially from the Darby area and South County,” said Birkle.

“It’s not hard,” said Foster. “It’s basically going and talking with friends—or people who will be your friends.”

Folks who might want to help as volunteer interviewers can contact Julie Foster at 375-9416 or Julie@rceda.org or Bobbie Roos at 375-6611 or at broos@montana.edu.

The Horizon Program, which is also working in Stevensville, is a community leadership program aimed at reducing poverty in small rural and reservation communities faced with economic decline and demographic change. Its goal is to help communities understand poverty, commit to action for improvements, and then bring about lasting change. It is a partnership with the Northwest Area Foundation, Montana State University and in Ravalli County the City of Darby, the Bitter Root RC & D and the Stevensville/Lone Rock Foundation. In south Ravalli County, the Horizons Program is also organizing a local food bank for Darby, which illustrates the power of the Horizons program to mobilize local residents to help promote a thriving and caring community for a win-win situation.

Hamilton Area Transportation Plan

The deadline is quickly approaching for citizens to apply for a spot on the 12-member Citizens Advisory Committee that will assist in the formation of an area-wide Hamilton Transportation Plan. Partnering in the project are the City of Hamilton, Ravalli County and the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT).

The updated Plan, called the Hamilton Area Transportation Plan (2009 Update), will examine all forms of ground transportation, including pedestrians and bicyclists, within the preliminary study area boundary.

The city hopes that the Citizens Advisory Committee will represent a diverse range of interests within the community. It is expected to convene for up to six evening meetings over the course of the planning project. All activities will be completed by the end of 2009.

The CAC will serve to weigh in on area transportation issues, offer feedback to the consultant guiding the project, Camp Dresser & McKee, and participate in reviewing and disseminating information to the general population.

A technical advisory committee has also been formed. According to Special Projects Director Dennis Stranger, the technical committee consists of the Hamilton director of Public Works, the County Road supervisor, two Montana Department of Transportation employees, one from Missoula and one from Helena, and local engineer Ron Uemura.

Citizens interested in serving on the CAC must mail or e-mail a brief one or two paragraph statement of interest describing their desire to volunteer on the CAC, along with noting any formal affiliations with specific groups, to the following address by March 27, at 5 p.m.: Rose Allen, City Clerk, City of Hamilton, 223 S. Second Street, Hamilton MT 59840; cityclerk@cityofhamilton.net.

Page One •	Valley News •	Op/Ed •	Sports •	Calendar •	Classifieds •	Legals •	Links •	About Us •	Back Issues •	Email Us •	Home
©2009 Bitterroot Star This site was Done By Dooney