MATR Newsletter – April 18, 2022
The state with the best education wins!

Come Home Montana

• ‘Rural is not dying’: Quality of life is driving migration to Montana, says survey

  Results from a newly published survey showed that most of Montana’s migrants, both from out of state and within, are giving rural communities a try for quality of life reasons, according to Tara Mastel, Montana State University Extension associate specialist for community development.

Northwestern Energy

• NorthWestern plans $10M upgrade to downtown Missoula substation as Caras Park improvements play out

  With the first round of renovations to Caras Park set to end for the summer season, NorthWestern Energy plans to improve the appearance of its downtown substation.

Great Falls Development Authority

• Great Falls Economic Development Top 10 for 4-16-22

  Here is our Top 21 for this week celebrating work and successes to grow and strengthen the Great Falls regional economy — Montana’s Golden Triangle. And, sharing business resources and skill-building opportunities to empower your success.

• NeighborWorks Great Falls highlights ‘Owner Built Homes’ program with Sen. Jon Tester

  NeighborWorks Great Falls was joined by U.S. Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) on Friday, April 15, 2022 to congratulate the latest round of families to complete NeighborWorks’ Owner Built Homes program.

MEDA -Montana Economic Developers Association

• ‘Social enterprises’: Northern Cheyenne nonprofit makes powerful push for economic development

  A perceptible disconnect exists between the realities of tribal communities and traditional sources of capital development. Without viable investment opportunities for those living at or below the poverty level, economic development becomes stunted.

• The collapse of the industrial livestock industry is coming A new report sees a major disruption in where we get our food.

  We’re just a few years from the tipping point in engineered food. Traditional agriculture’s 10,000-year-run is about over. Better foods, tastier foods, and cheaper foods are on the way.

• Sidecar coworking space to open in former Heebs building in Bozeman with Next Frontier Capital, which is part of a partnership group that owns the building.

  Sidecar provides office space to remote workers, small businesses and start-ups. It will share the old Heebs — which closed in 2019 when the store moved a half mile down East Main Street — with Next Frontier Capital, which is part of a partnership group that owns the building.

Next Generation Broadband in Montana

• Montana receives $30 million in transportation funding – Senator Tester’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Legislation is Signed into Law

  Senator negotiated legislation with a small, bipartisan core group of Senators; Senator secured inclusion of Montana priorities like funding for the Milk River Project, billions for Montana highways, and significant high speed internet investments

• New Federal Broadband Funds Will Come With a Fight
  The bipartisan infrastructure bill appears to transform how the federal government subsidizes broadband infrastructure. But evidence suggests that big companies may not allow the status quo to change without a fight.

Montana Business and Govt. Agency Collaboration Success

• Montana – The nuclear missile next door

  What it’s like to live with a bomb stronger than 20 Hiroshimas in a time of rising worldwide tensions.

• Where competing interests converge: Groups collaborate to protect Montana’s Big Hole River

  As the climate changes, as snowpacks dwindle, as people seek to build trophy homes on sacrosanct sites, as heavy metals seep and nutrients wash and oil and gas companies consider exploration it certainly seems that collaboration is as necessary to the health of the Big Hole River as deep and lingering snows.

Montana Economic Development

• Travel The secrets of Amtrak, from a man who’s ridden it for 50 years

  Beyond the scenery, riding long-distance trains is a novelty. It’s time off the grid, a chance to mingle if you feel social (or hole up with a book if you don’t). The trains have sleeper compartments with four types of rooms, coach seats larger than what you’d find in first class on a plane, a lounge and food service.

Housing

• Experts Say Boise Housing Market is Starting to Crack

  According to Bloomburg, a provider of financial news and information, research, and financial data, “If you’re wondering where the U.S. real estate market might start to show its first cracks, keep an eye on Boise, Idaho.

Montana Business

• Second garbage collector, L&L Site Services prepares for Missoula services

  According to the owner Lance Johnson, they’re shooting to begin services in May.

Visit Montana

• Glacier Park Announces Changes to Sun Road Cycling, Campground Reservations

  As plow crews prepare Going-to-the-Sun Road for summer, park officials detail recreational opportunities for visitors in April and May

Developing a more Entrepreneurial Montana

• An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Finding New Business Opportunities in the Metaverse

  Fortunes will be made from building the Metaverse. Here, a researcher lays out the types of companies needed to make it a reality.

• MSU to host April 20 Orser lecture featuring young entrepreneurs

  The talk is free and open to the public. It is hosted by the Jake Jabs College of Business and Entrepreneurship with support from the MSU LaunchPad through the college’s Orser Executive Speakers Forum.

Funding and Building your Business

• The Tech Labor Shortage Is Only Set to Grow. These Companies Think Apprenticeships Are the Answer

  Employers are struggling to find the skilled workers they need. Paid, on-the-job training could transform the workforce for good.

• 5 Things to know when choosing an Accelerator for your Start-Up

  There are literally thousands of accelerator programs out there.  Nearly all have some “cost” to founders in equity, fees, or just the time commitment required. Having seen hundreds of founders go through these programs (some more than once), there a

Incubators and R&D

• Anti-aging technology is coming. Do you have a Longevity Mindset?

  Billionaires like Jeff Bezos believe that aging is a disease that can be slowed, stopped, even reversed. But you have to be ready to receive its benefits.

• Landmark trial finds donating blood lowers PFAS (bad) “forever chemical” levels

  Firefighters have historically been exposed to extraordinarily high levels of PFAS. A growing body of research has associated high blood levels of PFAS to a variety of adverse health effects, including obesity, liver and thyroid abnormalities and impaired immune functions.

Regional Economic Development

• U.S. Venture Capital Is Pouring Into Canadian Enterprise Tech Startups

  U.S. funds have been coming across the border aggressively in the last five years, which has helped fuel cohorts of investable companies,’ says a lead investor at Georgian, a Toronto-based VC firm

21st Century Education Initiative – “You Should Care…”

• The battle for Missoula’s school board

  How last fall’s masking controversy sparked a politicized showdown for control of the public schools’ board of trustees.

Montana Education/Business Partnerships

• Maroon, Silver and Green: University of Montana Installs First Fleet of EV Charging Stations

  “Over the next few years, our goal is to add more stations to campus, including in our facilities compound and at the residence halls,” said Eva Rocke, UM’s sustainability director. “This grant is a game-changer for us as we become one of the only college campuses in the region to install high-quality EV charging stations. Hopefully adding a few more stations to those that already exist in Missoula will make it that much easier to own and drive an EV.”

City Club Missoula

• City Club Missoula – Destination Stewardship: How Can We Keep From “Loving Montana to Death?” May 9, 2022 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM – Zoom

  How can we responsibly steward our destination in order to result in more livable and sustainable places?

Careers

• Making friends is hard, but these 5 apps promise to make it easier

  Plus, actionable tips for how to do it.

Transportation

• 12 foolproof ways to get cars out of cities

  A new study ranks the 12 most effective measures that European cities have introduced, ranging from the ‘carrot’ of bike-to-work schemes to the ‘stick’ of removing free parking.

Energy and Climate Change

• Tesla’s Giant Solar & Energy Facility Near Las Vegas Has 528,084 Solar Panels

  Tesla’s giant solar and energy facility near Las Vegas will power 60,000 homes with its 528,084 solar panels and 90 MW/360 MWh Tesla Megapack. The new facility, Arevon Townsite Solar and Storage, is in Boulder City, Nevada, and will generate 500,000 MWh of electricity per year.

• Hydrogen 11 times worse than CO2 for climate, says new report

  When it’s released directly into the atmosphere, hydrogen itself can interact with other gases and vapors in the air to produce powerful warming effects. Indeed, a new UK Government study has put these interactions under the microscope and determined that hydrogen’s Global Warming Potential (GWP) is about twice as bad as previously understood; over a 100-year time period, a tonne of hydrogen in the atmosphere will warm the Earth some 11 times more than a tonne of CO2, with an uncertainty of ± 5.

• Energy services contract could cut City of Missoula’s CO2 emissions by 700 metric tons

  The city contracted McKinstry last March to complete an energy audit on several key facilities. The work has advanced to the point of a potential Energy Services Performance Contract, something permitted by the state Legislature.

• Helping Cities Achieve Just & Equitable Climate Futures Through Residential Energy Retrofits

  Already a pioneer in applied building simulations, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) expanded its partnerships to the city level, utilizing its ResStock™ tool and place-based data to help develop a roadmap for residential energy efficiency in Chicago through the Chicago Advanced Building Construction project.

Privacy, Hacking and Virus Alerts

• 60 Minutes – Shields Up: U.S. officials preparing for potential Russian cyberattacks

  I’m a big Star Trek fan, so “Shields Up!” And it has really caught on as something– that’s all about preparation, not panic.

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