By Bill Vander Weele The Great Northern Development Corporation is offering more educational trainings than ever before as a method to assist small businesses in the area. “It’s a lot more than in the past,” Tori Matejovsky, executive director for GNDC, said. “We’re here for small businesses and want to support them.” CARES Act funds is helping to pay for consultants to make

Kathleen Williams, the new State Director for USDA Rural Development in Montana, was on the road last week to meet with rural communities and discuss USDA Rural Development’s new Equity Project. According to a press release, the meetings were essentially listening sessions with community stakeholders. “These meetings help USDA Rural Development gain a broader understanding of how loan

Roosevelt County had nine active COVID cases as of Monday, March 14. There have been 71 COVID-related deaths in the county. There are no current hospitalizations. County health officials encourage all residents aged 5 and up to be vaccinated and those over 16 should consider getting booster doses. Immunizations are by appointment only. For questions or to schedule an appointment, call 406-653-6223.

At its Feb. 4 meeting, the Fish and Wildlife Commission identified a new season structure for mountain lions and asked Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks to solicit public comment on specifics of the proposal. The proposal is out for comment through March 18. This season structure under consideration would allocate harvest between unlimited licenses that will end when a quota is reached and special

Average gasoline prices in Montana are unchanged in the last week, averaging $4.01/g on Monday, March 14, according to GasBuddy’s survey of 615 stations in Montana. Prices in Montana are 60.2 cents per gallon higher than a month ago and stand $1.37/g higher than a year ago. According to GasBuddy price reports, the cheapest station in Montana was priced at $3.73/g on Sunday while the most expensive

New regulation booklets for upland gamebirds are available online at fwp. mt.gov/hunt/regulations. Printed booklets will be available later this month. This year, the booklets include turkey hunting regulations. A turkey is considered an upland gamebird by Montana statute. Also new in the 2022 upland gamebird regulations: Turkey hunting in Region 4 has changed to a general license spring

Bank and Browning) and Pondera County (Conrad) have been moved into the underpopulated District 1. State attorneys had submitted a proposal that produced districts satisfying the 10% deviation criteria by moving only three counties: Deer Lodge, Glacier and Musselshell. The newly ordered map is similar, except the judges chose to also shift Pondera County in order to bring the deviation to