Bozeman Build #64

Hi and welcome back the Bozeman Build Report discovering Montana and Northern Rockies trade content, hope everyone had a beautiful Memorial Day weekend and thanks for waiting a day given the Holiday. Today, in the 64th edition of the Bozeman Build we will cover Beartooth Basins first opening in 3 years, Road to the sun opening date history, biggest growth counties in Montana since 2020, new MT USDA director, combining fire agencies into one Federal Wildland Fire Service, combatting grass hoppers, compost soil mixes, proposed hotels, new Bozeman splash pad, Three Forks utility cost increases, new oil reserves identfied in SW Wyoming, septics to tornado shelters, nuclear reactors in the works, Denver dams and development, and the big elk.

Enjoy!

Daniel

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_{When and what is the Bozeman Build? The BB is a 1x/week free email newsletter delivered Monday mornings focused on Montana trade content and news. We are not a financial or building advisors.}

Montana and Bozeman Trade Pulse

Montana trade pulse

May 18, 2025 Beartooth Basin Will Open For Summer Skiing For First Time In Three Years (Cowboy State Daily)

May 19, 2025 Plow crews reach Logan Pass in Glacier National Park. The monumental task of prepare Going-to-the-Sun Road for visitors continues as crews work through Big Drift. (Daily Montanan)

May 20, 2025 U.S. Census: Gallatin, Flathead County add most residents in Montana. In Montana, 32 of the state’s 56 counties saw a population increase, concentrated in the state’s western counties, while the mostly eastern counties that saw population declines did so by just over a thousand cumulative residents. (Daily Montanan)

May 21 2025 Montana Ranks Third in the Nation for Lowest Unemployment behind South Dakota and North Dakota. (DLI)

May 22, 2025 Trump Administration Appoints Mike Foster to Serve as State Executive Director for USDA’s Farm Service Agency in Montana (USDA)

May 22, 2025 Montana National Guard general to retire in June, Governor names replacement. Major General J Peter Hronek, the Adjutant General of Montana’s National Guard, will retire on June 7, following a 40-year military career. (Daily Montanan)

May 22, 2025 Two landowners were picking mushrooms about a mile north of Choteau on Wednesday night when they were charged by an adult female grizzly bear. The men shot and killed the bear at close range, and fortunately, they were uninjured during the encounter. (FWP MT)

May 26, 2025 Fast-building states get more babies. The number of births in some Western states that are adding new housing rose last year, reversing losses the year before in many cases, according to new federal statistics released Wednesday. Increases from 2023 to 2024 were highest in Colorado (4.5%), Idaho (3.8%), Utah (3.6%), Washington state and Nebraska (each 2.6%). Births increased around 2% in West Virginia, South Dakota, North Carolina, Montana, Rhode Island and South Carolina. (Daily Montanan)

May 26, 2025 The U.S. Forest Service has the largest share of responsibility for fighting wildfires on federal land, but they’re just one of five agencies dividing those duties. Now, some leaders are talking seriously about combining all of those responsibilities into one Federal Wildland Fire Service. (KBZK)

Someone on reddit was posting “Will attracting more birds keep the grasshoppers at bay?” Some suggestions from the comments recommended letting chickens graze free range, bringing in turkeys, and building birdboxes on the fence posts. (reddit)

MDT News

From Montana Department of Transportation News

• Proposed safety improvements for York Road

• Proposed left-turn lane at US 12/US 287 and Beaver Creek

• Open house to discuss ADA upgrades in Bridger

• Open house and virtual meeting to discuss MT 3 Corridor Study

• MDT to host open house on the 9th St NW Reconstruction project

• Construction on Zoo Drive to begin this June

• Hiawatha Trail access on I-90

• Crews installing cattle guards on I-90 on/off ramps

Bozeman trade pulse

May 19, 2025 - Rumors are floating around that BYEP downtown are needing to tear out their skatepark for insurance reasons.

May 19, 2025 Montana State University Extension expert: More compost might not be what garden soil needs. (MSU News)

May 20, 2025 Busy summer travel mixed with airport expansion projects could lead to longer lines at BZN (KBZK)

May 20, 2025 6-Story Boutique Hotel Proposed for Mendenhall in Downtown Bozeman. A site application has been submitted to the city for a 6-story hotel on East Mendenhall, near Rouse, in the parking area behind Open Range is is denied. (Bozeman Real Estate Group)

May 22, 2025 An application for a 5-story mixed-use building at 703 W Mendenhall is in the public review stage with the City of Bozeman. The proposed building, referred to as “Missouri Heights” would include 13 residential units and 2 commercial units. It would also include a rooftop deck, courtyard, and 9 covered parking spaces. (Bozeman Real Estate Group)

May 22 City of Belgrade, Montana (Owner) is requesting Bids for the construction of Reclamation Facility Lagoon Rehabilitation Project Phase 1 (Legals)

May 22nd 2025 City officials say two new Montana laws will create a significant policy shift in Bozeman. Gov. Greg Gianforte signed House Bill 492 and Senate Bill 243 into law this spring. (NBC Montana)

• HB 492 states any dwelling unit less than 1,200 square feet won’t have any parking requirements.

• SB 243 establishes a required minimum building height of 60 feet in industrial, heavy commercial and downtown areas.

May 23, 2025 The Three Forks City Council will hold public hearings on June 10, 2025, and July 8, 2025, both at 6:00PM to hear a resolution of intent to increase the minimum (base) sewer and water rates by up to 10% and 15%, respectively. (Legals)

May 23, 2025 City of Bozeman breaks ground on Story Mill Park splash pad. The city expects the splash pad to be up and running before the end of summer 2025. (KBZK)

Bozeman Planning Projects

City of Bozeman project proposals created last week dated May 21 - May 23, for a while there hasn’t been much postings, this week there was 8, maybe they upload them all at once. (Bozeman Planning Division)

• 25090 - Large Renovation in historic district. Restoration of exterior historic facades, converting two unit apartments to a 4 unit.

• 25010 - Develop a 2-unit commercial condominium structure. Baxter Meadows.

• 25084 - Hidden Creek SP - Construct a housing development consisting of five residential apartment buildings.

• 25111 - Kendall Auto Site Plan. Site Plan Application to address expansion of the existing FORD Dealership & two new automobile sales/service buildings w/related improvements.

Northern Rockies

May 22, 2025 Massive oil and gas reserves identified across southwest Wyoming are being called out this week by federal officials as “substantial.” It has local industry watchers wondering if that could mean a new “Bakken boom” in the region. (Cowboy State Daily)

McAtee Construction, a precast septic manufacture in Nebraska started making 16,000 pound storm shelters that can fit 8 adults, selling and installing 20 over the last two weeks, these units cost ~$4,500/each. (KETV Omaha)

Radiant Nuclear, based in El Segundo, California, hopes to bring a nuclear microreactor manufacturing facility to central Wyoming. Bar Nunn residents learn of spent nuclear storage plans from Radiant. (Wyoming News)

Denver Development

Its wild seeing how large Denver Colorado has grown, I guess they have plenty of real estate to the East to expand still. Two perspectives that are always interesting to me is thinking of gravel pits as the cut and fill to the cities, each lake contributed to the building of roads, culverts, and buildings across the City. The second image shows a Zillow screenshot of new neighborhoods emerging in East Aurora, many of which have had some price cuts over the last couple months typically listed within the 450-600 range.

Chimney Hollow

Though the Front Range Urban Corridor is located at the foot of the Rockies and has the Platte River running through, it only receives ~14.30 avg inches of precipitation per year (NOAA) and is home to over 5,226,455 as of the 2024 census (wiki). The front range has a future water problem (a familiar issue in the West) so the State commissioned the Chimney Hollow Reservoir Project which will host 90,000 acre-feet of dedicated storage capacity supplying a reliable 30,000 acre-feet of water each year for future generations. Chimney Hollow isn’t stream fed, it will be filled from a 255-acre-foot reservoir which collects water from the Colorado River (Northern Water). Bozeman, Montana-based Barnard Construction and Swiss engineering firm Walo are tackling this project. (Construction Dive)

History

It happened in July of 1916, when the Elks Club constructed a 62-foot-tall Elk that straddled the intersection of Broadway and Main Street. It was built for the Elks National Convention, which drew more than 30,000 people to Butte.

The Butte Archives has an exhibit on display all summer celebrating the history of Butte’s Elks Lodge #240, which was established in 1892. The crew even built a much smaller elk, which actually took longer to construct than the original.

Rock on!

Daniel

bozemanbuild.com & blockbiome.com