Featured "Come Home Montana" Community~SIDNEY

Montana Wants You Back! ReVisit your Home Town today.

Community Assets Include:

* Welcome to Sidney, the Sunrise City, located in the beautiful Yellowstone River Valley in Richland County. Sidney is nicknamed the Sunrise City because it is so close to the North Dakota border that it is one of the first places in Montana to see the sunrise each morning. Sidney is renowned for its hospitality and beauty. It is a progressive city of 5000 people with a positive attitude and a "can-do" spirit. Sidney is the county seat of Richland County. The Sidney area economy is agriculture and energy based. For events, accommodations, demographics, history, Lewis and Clark Bicentennial information, and photos, refer to the two web sites listed below.

* Sidney Montana

* Richland Economic Development

* The Sidney Public Schools are award winners in academics, music and sports. Grades K-12 are part of the public school system with one elementary school, one middle school, and one high school being located in Sidney. There are several private pre-schools and one Christian School. Two community colleges (2-year) are located within 50 miles of Sidney.

* Telecommunications: Mid-Rivers Communications and Qwest both provide telephone service with a full gamut of calling features. High speed Internet access is available via cable modem, 56K dial-up Internet access, plu domain name hosting and web page hosting. Mid-Rivers has a local office with phone system sales. Omni Communications also installs phone systems.

* Sidney Sugars: produces sugar from locally grown sugar beets. This factory was built in 1925 and until 2001 when it was purchased by American Crystal Sugar Corportation, it was called Holly Sugar and owned by Imperial Holly. During campaign (September-March) this company payroll swells to 250 workers and processes 1,102,956 tons of beets into 300,000,000 pounds, or 3 million hundredweight, of sugar. Total annual payroll, including benefits, comes to more than $7,500,000. Annual beet payments to 260 contracted growners produces annual beet payments ranging from $40,000,000 to $60,000,000.

* Sidney Millwork Co.: produces cabinets and office furniture for institutions and businesses. They employ 50 people with varying levels of skills from laborers to engineers. They have completed projects in 20 states; among the most recent projects are the Club Level millwork at Invesco Field in Denver (the home of the Denver Broncos), the new law building at the University of Denver and a new hospital in Northfield Minnesota. Sidney Millwork is currently conducting a search to hire engineers. Contact them at 406-482-2810 or check out their web site through the links provided on the home page.

* Richland Yellowstone Manufacturing: makes western tack such as saddle pads and gear bags. Distribution of product in several states. Churn Creek, Ltd.: manufactures Chuck and James granola in 5 different flavors and two different sizes.

Opportunities:

* Energy: The Sidney Area economy is also energy based. This area lies in the Williston Basin oilfield and went through a boom and bust cycle in the 1970’s and 1980’s. With hundreds of oil wells in the area, even in a bust cycle, many people are needed to keep the oil flowing, so a significant payroll is generated locally. Now that the price of oil is high again, drilling companies are once again finding it profitable to drill for oil. Technology developed during the last 20 years has made the probability of striking oil much greater and horizontal drilling techniques are being widely used. During 2003 Richland County saw a significant increase in the number of rigs, and the only thing holding up a quick expansion is the availability of rigs and skilled laborers.

http://www.comehomemontana.org/viewinfo.php?town=sidney