E-City Beat✓

Preserve Your Holiday Family Memories With A Local Company

ECB Staff on December 26, 2022

Isn’t it time to preserve those treasured family video and audio memories you have on old formats like 16mm, cassette, and VHS by transferring them to modern digital formats like DVD, CD, and thumb drives?

Stray Moose Productions is a local one-stop audio-visual production, duplicating and transfer specialist.

“Why send your memories out of town when we can do it all right here in the Great Falls area?” – Stray Moose Productions

Stray Moose Productions can transfer your VHS and SVHS video tapes of movies, home movies and other content to DVD for you quickly and affordably. They are located in Black Eagle.

They also transfer 8mm and 16mm home movies to DVD, Beta to DVD, and cassette, reel-to-reel and vinyl to CD.

Stray Moose Productions also does professional video work for your special events such as weddings and memorial services.

Call 406-727-6670 or email info@straymoose.com

They are located at 3 Anaconda Hills Dr., Black Eagle, MT – next to Anaconda Hills Golf Course and across from the Black Eagle Community Center.

Great Falls Welcomes New American Citizens

Rick Tryon on December 16, 2022

On Thursday, December 15 I had the honor and privilege to represent the City of Great Falls and the citizens of Great Falls in welcoming 21 newly minted American citizens to our country, state, and community.

The naturalization swearing-in and ceremony was held at the federal courthouse here in Great Falls with the Honorable Brian M. Morris, U.S. Chief District Court Judge for the District of Montana presiding.

I was deeply moved seeing the sincere and grateful faces of the new members of our American family as they held their hands over their hearts and recited our Pledge of Allegiance and then took the Naturalization Oath.

Here is the list of the countries from which these 21 new citizens came.

Canada
India
Thailand
Burma
Mexico
Philippines
Ecuador
Dominican Republic
Russia
Congo
Brazil
Germany
Columbia
Romania
United Kingdom
Argentina

I was reminded of the awesome privilege, and corresponding responsibilities, of American citizenship and how those of us who were born on freedom’s soil take it all for granted at times.

These beautiful men and women who worked so hard to call themselves American citizens, and respected our laws enough to do it the right way, are an inspiration.

Welcome!

Debunking The Bunk: No, GF Taxes Aren’t Going Up 191%

Rick Tryon on December 7, 2022

This is the first in what will be a regular column on E-City Beat in which I will attempt to debunk some of the rumors, urban myths, misinformation, and flat-out bunk making the rounds in Great Falls on social media, information/news outlets, and ‘word on the street’.

We’ll start with the recent local rumor that goes something like this, “The City is going to try to raise our property taxes 191% in a safety levy!”

Nope.

The fact is that the Great Falls City Commission asked our city administration to gather information from our police, fire, and municipal court departments on their staffing and infrastructure needs going forward.

The result was a set of “good, better, best” funding amounts to start the discussion for a potential public safety levy next year.

Here are the three levels of potential funding presented to the commission:

GOOD: $10M – $12M
BETTER: $22M – $25M
BEST: $33M – $36M

If the “best” amount were to be put to voters via a public safety levy the increase to local property taxes could be as high as 191%.

Also, if scientists come up with an affordable hair growth pill next year I could once again have a full, luxurious head of handsome wavy curls on my head.

That’s “if” and “could”, not “when” and “will”.

There is no proposal to raise our property taxes 191%. There are only discussion starting points and data points for consideration and public input.

If and when the voters are presented with a public safety levy to adequately fund our cops, courts, and firefighters it will only be after thorough public vetting and discussion.

The “they’re raising our taxes 191%” is a false alarm. The City is not doing that, rest assured.

Marijuana Tax Revenue For Great Falls – Commissioner Rick Tryon

Rick Tryon on November 28, 2022

On Election Day a few weeks ago Cascade County voters voted to approve a 3% local option tax on recreational adult use marijuana sales countywide.

On the same ballot, Great Falls voters approved commercial marijuana activities, weed shops etc., within Great Falls city limits.

In light of those decisions by local voters I will be pursuing an initiative to designate all of the tax revenue generated through weed sales coming to the City of Great Falls to go to funding our city’s public safety needs – police, fire department, and courts.

A couple of things to note regarding this:

Current zoning regulations limit commercial marijuana activities in Great Falls to areas zoned Industrial 1 and Industrial 2. Considering the people’s vote on this issue, I believe that it is appropriate to continue the zoning conversation and get as much public input from stakeholders as possible going forward.
Only 45% of the 3% tax collected by the County will be distributed by formula to the incorporated towns within Cascade County, of which Great Falls is the largest, so revenue expectations should be tempered. This isn’t a magic money tree.

I am working on getting some solid numbers on what we can expect given the current and projected potential revenue from weed sales and will update the public as soon as possible.

Cascade County Dems Crushed Again

ECB Staff on November 16, 2022

On Election Day in November of 2020 Cascade County Republican candidates for the state legislature defeated every one of their Democrat opponents on the ballot, including several incumbent legislators.

It was an unprecedented red wave in Great Falls/Cascade County.

This year it was even worse for local Dems. It was a red tsunami.

Democrats lost every single contested race on the ballot.

Not only did all of the GOP incumbents retain their seats in the state legislature, even the remaining Dem incumbents went down to defeat:

Longtime local Democrat and incumbent state Senator Tom Jacobson was booted out by voters, losing to relatively unknown newcomer to local politics, Daniel Emrich.
For 16 years the Cascade County Clerk and Recorder position was held by Democrat incumbent Rina Fontana-Moore. Voters replaced Moore with yet another political GOP newcomer, Sandra Merchant.
Democrat stalwart Don Ryan, incumbent Cascade County Commissioner, lost his race to Rae Grulkowski.

Great Falls/Cascade County, once a blue stronghold, at least for now is a deep, ruby red.

Holiday Gift Idea – Family VHS Videos On DVD

ECB Staff on November 4, 2022

With Christmas right around the corner why not give the gift of treasured family memories on video transferred from old 16mm or VHS to DVD?

Stray Moose Productions is a local one-stop audio-visual production, duplicating and transfer specialist.

“Why send your memories out of town when we can do it all right here in the Great Falls area?” – Stray Moose Productions

Stray Moose Productions can transfer your VHS and SVHS video tapes of movies, home movies and other content to DVD for you quickly and affordably. They are located in Black Eagle.

They also transfer 8mm and 16mm home movies to DVD, Beta to DVD, and cassette, reel-to-reel and vinyl to CD.

Stray Moose Productions also does professional video work for your special events such as weddings and memorial services.

Call 406-727-6670 or email info@straymoose.com

They are located at 3 Anaconda Hills Dr., Black Eagle, MT – next to Anaconda Hills Golf Course and across from the Black Eagle Community Center.

Great Falls Listed In Top 4 Cities In MT To Move To

Rick Tryon on November 3, 2022

This week I read an article titled “WHY IN THE FUNK DOES GREAT FALLS GET DISSED SO MUCH” posted on KMON’s website and written by Tammie Toren, a KMON DJ.

While I agree with Tammie that my hometown Great Falls is an awesome and wonderful place to live I have to scratch my head a little at a couple of the observations she makes in the article.

The very first sentence in the piece is, “Apparently, I’m in the minority of people who love living in Great Falls.” No, Tammie is not in the minority. The majority of us Great Fallsians love living here because we recognize how special this place is.

No Back Turning Here

Another comment that Tammie makes in her article is, “Even in a Great Falls that has turned it’s back on the middle and lower class.” Sorry Tammie, but nothing could be further from the truth.

There are dozens of non-profit and volunteer organizations with hundreds of dedicated local folks working 24/7/365 helping the “middle and lower class” in Great Falls.

The City allocates hundreds of thousands of dollars every year in CDBG and other federal funding to help create more opportunities for lower income families and individuals in this community.

Great Falls is filled with good and decent folks who donate their time and resources to helping others. We’re not turning our backs on anyone here.

Does Great Falls ‘Let’ The Right One In?

A third head-scratching comment in the article is, “Even in a Great Falls that won’t let a chain ANYTHING in town, so the middle and lower class are forced to shop elsewhere because $150 for a pair of sweats or $200 for dinner for 2 are out of reach.”

That represents a common misconception that someone, somewhere in town is in charge of deciding which businesses can or cannot locate in Great Falls.

While City zoning codes and development policies can have a minor impact on where national chain stores decide to locate, that decision is almost completely determined by market and demographic factors, not by some entity in the City deciding to ‘let’ a business open.

Is Great Falls perfect? Certainly not. Is there a need to change and make improvements here? Absolutely.

We can love our town and seek to make it better at the same time.

Ready Or Not, Great Falls Is Going To See Growth And Change

In another recent article, by Joe Robison on moveBuddha.com, Great Falls is listed as number 4 of the top 5 cities to move to in Montana.

Like it or not Great Falls is on the verge of being “discovered”.

Like it or not change is coming sooner rather than later and what we can control right now are two things:

Preparing our public safety and physical infrastructure for the growth and change that’s heading our way.

Managing the rate and type of change that is inevitable here.

It’s going to be kind of uncomfortable for those of us who are used to the “old Great Falls”.

But it’s also going to be an exciting and challenging decade of transformation.

Ready or not, here it comes.

Trick Or Treat: 15 Fentanyl Deaths In Great Falls In 2022

Rick Tryon on October 27, 2022

Heads up, Great Falls, Halloween is this coming Monday.

‘Candy’ that looks like Skittles or Sweet Tarts could actually contain fentanyl.

If you think this poison, or other harmful stuff, could never get into YOUR kids’ trick or treat candy you’re whistling past the graveyard.

At our 10/18/22 regular meeting the Great Falls City Commission received a report from the local High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas task force that we have had 15 fatal fentanyl overdoses so far this year in Great Falls/Cascade County.

Be Smart. Be Safe.

Make sure a responsible adult accompanies your children when they go trick or treating.
Check and double check ALL treats before consuming.
Throw out any treats not in original, sealed packaging.

Halloween is supposed to be fun-scary, not real-scary. But we live in a world and a time when real evil exists – like people who make and export candy colored fentanyl into our neighborhoods.

So please, please be extra careful this Halloween.

GF Dems Krotkov, Bessette, Smith Hoping Voters Have Short Memories

Philip M. Faccenda on October 25, 2022

If you want to know what politicians really think then you have to be reminded of what they say when they think voters aren’t listening or watching very closely.

E-City Beat has been keeping track of what the most ‘progressive’ local Democrats running for state legislature were Tweeting when they thought voters weren’t paying attention.

And it’s quite different from the image they’re trying to put forward now that it’s election season.

So here’s a brief rundown of what Jasmine Krotkov, Barbara Bessette, and Melissa Smith actually believe – which is not the feel-good, ‘moderate’ happy talk they’re trying to palm off on Great Falls/Cascade County voters now.

Jasmine Krotkov, Candidate for HD25

Looks like we know where Krotkov stands on teaching critical race theory in our public schools.

Employees who lost jobs for refusing vaccine mandates, take note.

Trickle down economics is a ‘killer’? Pure garbage from Krotkov!

Barbara Bessette, Candidate HD24

Is Bessette running to represent all of us – or just ‘the resistance’?

Oh, it ‘sounds like’ our Lt. Governor is a racist, huh? What a dangerous and bigoted presumption by Bessette, a candidate for state legislature.

Unacceptable, nasty, and hateful Tweet from Bessette.

Melissa Smith, Candidate HD23

Nice reminder of Smith’s priorities for our community.

Do we really want someone like Melissa Smith in public office deciding who should and ‘should not have money’?

Wait, ‘we could just stop burning fossil fuels’? You mean like in my car that takes me to work in the morning and in my home this winter?

There’s more, lots more, but I think you get the basic idea here.

Krotkov, Bessette, and Smith are nowhere near ‘moderate’. They are far left ideologues with an agenda that they intend to push if elected.

Don’t let them succeed in pulling the wool over your eyes.