MATR Newsletter – September 16, 2022
The state with the best education wins!

“Whatever you do, always give 100%.

Unless you’re donating blood.”
Bill Murray

Come Home Montana

• Gallatin County to host two career fairs in September

  Express Employment Professionals is teaming up with Gallatin County to host two career fairs in Bozeman, showcasing career opportunities in county government. The first fair will take place on Wednesday,…

City of Bozeman Economic Development

• Bozeman laying plans to try again for local sales tax at Legislature

  Near the top of the city’s draft priority list is to defend local control. During the 2021 session, the Legislature passed a bill prohibiting inclusionary zoning, which was a housing policy that made up the core of Bozeman’s affordable housing program.

Montana Business

• Montana hat maker seeing ‘Yellowstone’ effect – Rand’s Hats in Billings

  Thad Lamey — who has worked as a hat maker for about five years — has noticed the massive difference in the popularity of the business, and he credits a lot of that to the hit TV show.

Idaho News & Events

• Boise, Salt Lake City partnering to request rail service between cities

  This is part of the city’s broader effort alongside other Mountain West partners to reboot the full Pioneer Line stretching Portland to Salt Lake City, which will soon be under study as part of the infrastructure package passed last year. The route ended service in the late 1990s.

• Virtual Power Plant Model To Expand In Utah & Idaho ( and California, Oregon, Washington) (With Video) – Is Your State Next?

  The Wattsmart program is now being offered to utility customers in Idaho and will soon be available to PacifiCorp customers in California, Oregon, and Washington, according to spokesperson (we swear we are not making this up) Brandon Zero. “Rocky Mountain Power’s vision for the program is that all solar customers will also install a battery. Our goal is to have thousands of customers and hundreds of megawatts enrolled in Wattsmart,” he said.

Hellgate Venture Network

• Hellgate Venture Network With Ben Winters, Co-Founder of Population Explorer- 9/22 – Missoula

  The Hellgate Venture Network is a community of Missoula entrepreneurs that meets monthly. It was founded in March of 2009 by Paul Gladen and Dawn McGee. Being a leader of a business is often isolating, so Paul and Dawn decided to offer peer-to-peer mentorship and support by hosting a gathering once a month. People who are not from Missoula often ask about the name – the steep gorge cut by the Clark Fork to the east of the Missoula Valley is known as Hellgate Canyon.

Transportation

• A Sustainable Future Requires Smart, Data-Driven Public Transport Networks

  Devin de Vries, CEO of WhereIsMyTransport, makes the case for new and improved mobility as a tool for sustainability and equitable economic development.

• “Our Next Energy” To Showcase Anode-Free Battery With 600-Mile Range

  Earlier this year, Our Next Energy fitted a Gemini battery pack to a Tesla Model S, then drove it for 752 miles in the middle of winter in Michigan.

Energy and Climate Change

• Lewis and Clark County searching for answers to plastic recycling problem following suspension in Augusta

  With a limited market, the suspension is providing an opportunity for the community and Lewis and Clark County to figure out a plan. However, it’s not the first time the county is seeing a problem like this.

• World heading into ‘uncharted territory of destruction’, says climate report

  Governments and businesses failing to change fast enough, says United in Science report, as weather gets increasingly extreme

MATR Newsletter Supporters: