Nelson’s Ace Hardware of Whitefish is celebrating 75 years in business. The family broke ground for a new location in July 2018 and opened the doors in March 2019 on US Highway 93. Ace Handyman is a new service that began operating in October.

The Lucia de Brito Franco Art Gallery has opened in Columbia Falls. The Gallery is located at 638 Nucleus Avenue, Suite 103. It contains the works of de Brito Franco but also that of local artists. De Brito Franco has displayed work in Portugal, the Azores and Switzerland.

Café Zydeco is for sale as its owner looks to move on from his 25-year career at the restaurant. Listed for sale last spring the cafe’s owners hope to sell the property and the business for close to $3 million. Café Zydeco’s menu features a variety of Cajun-style items.

NorthWestern Energy customers will see rate increases in January. Montana’s Public Service Commission voted unanimously to allow NorthWestern the opportunity to recover $2.9 million under terms approved by commissioners last fall. At issue is the $208 million base cost used to determine whether customers have paid too much, or too little for power over the previous year.

Restaurateurs Shadd and Amanda Cullinan have finalized the purchase of Sidney’s Rodiron Grill at 520 N. Central Ave., completing the sale on Dec. 14. Soon thereafter the crowds formed a line waiting in anticipation of trying restaurant’s menu. Renamed Saloon 27, owner Shadd Cullinan, expects to supply great service with quality food.

Williston Basin International Airport has recorded an almost 32% increase in boardings during last month compared to a year ago. According to statistics provided by the North Dakota Aeronautics Commission, the airport saw 8,461 enplanes in November 2023, up 2,041 passengers from the 6,420 enplanements recorded in November 2022. 8,030 passengers deplaned up from the 6,011 number of passengers who deplaned in November 2022.

After years of new arrivals swelling Montana’s population and straining its housing supply, new data released recently by the U.S. Census Bureau indicates that the volume of net migration into the state has declined. As of July 1, 2023, the agency estimates Montana had 1,132,800 residents. That’s about 9,900 more than a year prior, or a 0.9% increase. Data published by the Census Bureau estimates that, as of July 2023, Montana had about 527,800 housing units — one potential home for every 2.1 residents. Since the 2020 census, however, the agency’s figures indicate Montana’s housing supply has grown by a comparatively slim 13,000 units, adding only one home for every 3.7 residents of population growth.

The Teton Airport Commission has signed a five-year lease with Scapegoat Aviation L.L.C. of Choteau to operate a fixed-base operation at the Choteau airport. Scapegoat Aviation’s owners are Ben and Chrissy Hodgskiss and Bill and Heather Hodgskiss. Scapegoat Aviation approached the Airport Commission last fall with a proposal to lease property at the airport for the operation of an aviation-based business that will provide initially jet fuel and aviation fuel sales, hangar and ramp rental.

A ballot initiative to change how elections are won in Montana to a majority vote system is a step closer to appearing on the ballot. Legislators took a 9-1 vote to support the proposed change in a special State Administration and Veterans’ Affairs Interim Committee meeting. Proponents now need to gather enough signatures for the issue to go to the voters this November. Some committee members expressed concern about what they see as lack of clarity in some of the definitions– including to which elections this Constitutional amendment would apply.

The Heart Butte School Board is set to terminate 31 staff members at an upcoming meeting next week likely in order to cut district costs. The board will also decide whether to accept five resignations. Terminations include 11 teacher’s assistants, two mental health professionals, a substitute art teacher, the sub-administrative secretary, a truancy officer and 15 custodial, maintenance and kitchen staff members. Resignations include two teachers, the athletic director, a truancy officer and Augare.

Starting Feb. 5, the U.S. Postal Service will be delivering the Great Falls Tribune as part of an effort to improve delivery consistency and optimize resources amid ongoing labor challenges, fluctuating fuel prices, competition for workers from door-to-door delivery services and increasing digital demand. The Great Falls Tribune will continue its coverage of local news, high school sports and other issues of interest to Cascade County readers from our journalists based in Great Falls and state partners.

According to a press release from the Williston Fire Department, they received an initial report of an explosion at a site with multiple injuries and dispatched at 6:11 p.m. The site was located southeast of 13 Mile Corner at the intersection of 131st Avenue NW and 62nd Street NW. The fire department responded to the scene. There, it was determined there were five workers present, with three sustaining injuries. The three injured parties sustained burns and were transferred by fixed-wing air medical services to Swedish Medical Center in Aurora, Colorado.

Hoping to preserve dwindling native bull trout populations, state wildlife officials are looking to remove lake trout from Swan Lake. Bull trout, which are native to the valley, have struggled since the introduction of invasive species like lake trout, rainbow trout and mysis shrimp in the region. The decision to develop a plan to remove lake trout came after state biologists observed a historically low number of bull trout redds, or spawning nests, in the Swan’s watershed system in 2023. The first step, which residents can comment on until Jan. 23, requires seeking the Fish and Wildlife Commission’s permission to initiate a public MEPA process where the removal of lake trout from Swan Lake will be evaluated.

According to Coal Zoom, Federal mine regulators have rejected a “citizen’s complaint” concerning state regulation of the Signal Peak Energy’s Bull Mountain Mine near Roundup. The complaint is a request for intervention, filed by Northern Plains Resource Council, Moms Clean Air Force, Montana Environmental Information Center, 350 Montana, Citizens for Clean Energy, Families for a Livable Climate, Montana Health Professionals, Sierra Club and WildEarth Guardians. The groups asked the OSM to inspect the mine or require DEQ to open the mine to public inspections.

Talks of consolidating Glendive City Court with the Dawson County Justice of the Peace have entered the sphere of the Dawson County Commission, as Mayor Deb Dion was present at its first meeting of 2024 to provide information regarding the effort. According to Dion, consolidating the courts and authorizing Justice of the Peace Stacey Nerison to preside over all respective hearings is one way the City of Glendive and Dawson County could potentially save money and resources. The idea to consolidate courts was first introduced by Dion during the meeting of the City of Glendive’s Ordinance Committee on Dec. 20, where she explained reasons for considering a consolidation of courts stem from a need to free up funds for better animal control in Glendive, at least within the city’s limits.

A low snow year is impacting local businesses and tourism to Yellowstone National Park, with the park temporarily barring some roads to snowmobile travel due to the lack of snow. The park’s winter season kicked off on Dec. 15 with a limited coating of snow on the roads but still enough to allow for snowmobile travel. But on Dec. 27, the park closed roads in the west side of the park to snowmobiling, specifically the popular 30-mile route from West Yellowstone to Old Faithful.

Take 5 Oil Change has opened at 52 N. Main St. in Kalispell. The opening marks the first of eight planned stores within Montana, currently making Last Best Oil Change, LLC the exclusive operator of Take 5 Oil Change garages in the Treasure State. 

With a new $26.7 million grant from the U.S. Air Force, Montana State University will establish a facility with the mission of moving advanced quantum technology applications in cybersecurity, communications technology and national defense from concept and testing to market. The 20-month grant from the Air Force Research Laboratory in Rome, New York, will support MSU’s Applied Quantum CORE facility, to be located within the INDUSTRY Bozeman building, which is currently under construction. The grant funding will purchase equipment to test prototype quantum components in the extremely cold environments in which they operate.

Construction of the Great Falls Civic Center is nearly finished, following three years of construction. The original infrastructure was built in the 1930s and a recent $5.7 mil investment will help preserve the civic center for decades to come, say officials.