In the interest of full transparency and in response to the dozens of complaints, comments and expressions of concern I’ve received over the past couple of months I am taking this opportunity to share the information made publicly available concerning the action recently taken by the City of Great Falls related to the ‘homeless encampment’…
In recent weeks I’ve received numerous complaints and questions about the situation at the so-called “homeless camp” in the parking lot and property of the First United Methodist Church in downtown Great Falls. The situation has caused a lot of controversy due to it’s location and the fact that the “camp” is growing, in the…
At last weeks Great Falls city commission meeting we voted unanimously to approve a tax abatement, worth about $2.8 million over 10 years, for the Calumet refinery here. The abatement is an incentive for Calumet’s bio-fuel expansion project which is creating more high-paying jobs in Great Falls, is environmentally friendly, and will help to boost…
Because I’ve been asked about it several times, I felt it necessary at last night’s Great Falls city commission meeting to publicly correct a piece of incorrect reporting by the Great Falls Tribune last week. The front page of the Tribune’s Thursday, March 31 print addition carried the following headline, “‘Not in my neighborhood’ Anti-Semitic,…
At last week’s Great Falls city commission meeting we voted to approve a $150,000 funding request, using federal ARPA funds, for the Great Falls International Airport. The money will be used as part of a matching fund package for a Small Community Air Service Development Grant (SCASD) to help lower air fares at Great Falls’…
During the public comment portion of last night’s Great Falls City Commission meeting quite a few local residents got up and expressed their opinions on the “homeless encampment” at the First United Methodist Church. You can view the video of the meeting here. Public comment begins at about 7 minutes 30 seconds into the meeting….
This week I received and reviewed some of the latest economic data put out by Patrick Barkey and the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of Montana. Once again I found it interesting, and a little discouraging to be honest, to see how Great Falls/Cascade County is faring compared to other Montana…
Yesterday I received some photos from a local resident showing handbills posted in Great Falls promoting a ‘White Lives Matter’ agenda. I’ve included the pictures in this piece. I was troubled by the pictures. Just as I was troubled by some of the incendiary and hateful messages at the ‘Defund The Police/BLM’ rallies in Great…
With 2022 almost here, I thought it would be a good time to provide Great Falls folks with a brief outline of what I, as a City Commissioner, consider to be two very important areas of focus in the coming year. First, I believe we need to make it a priority to follow up on…
After seeing someone named Ed Caffrey ‘quote’ me incorrectly on public news sites twice over the past week regarding the Great Falls Crime Task Force, I decided it was time to set the record straight. The following comment was attributed to Mr. Caffrey on the Great Falls Tribune Facebook page; I simply thought Caffrey was…