As of June, Forever French, a baby and lifestyle brand owned by Chantelle French of Arizona, now has roots in Kalispell, offering the local community a boutique children’s and lifestyle store. Forever French began as an online business in 2019 after Chantelle French received her daughter’s autism diagnosis. Inspired by the beauty and resilience of her daughter, French began selling the store’s iconic soft, stretchy and breathable fabrics from her home in Arizona. Over time, the brand grew. In 2021, French opened her first physical store in Gilbert, Arizona. Then Arcadia, Arizona followed suit with a new storefront in July of 2023. Kalispell.

The Sidney-Richland Regional Airport will receive $3.1 million in funding to help repave and repair its runway. The funding, which totals $3,3134,500, will be used for a project involving milling the runways and resealing them. The construction will take place until next summer.

The City of Glasgow has decided to return part of the downtown parking to angle-in parking. Angle parking will be implemented on the south side of 2nd Ave. S., and the east side of 3rd St. S. The other side of the street will remain parallel parking. This project will increase available parking in downtown Glasgow by 20 to 30 percent. The project was awarded to LSC, Inc., in the amount of $27,850.80.

Plum Creek Timber Company opened a fiberboard plant in Columbia Falls in 1974. The plant cost Plum Creek, which was spun off from a division of Burlington Northern Railroad, $10.5 million and was expected to utilize 108,000 tons of wood waste annually. The initial plant was expected to produce about 70 million square feet of fiberboard a year and would employ about 115 workers.

Alliance for the Wild Rockies has announced its intent to sue the U.S. Forest Service over potential impacts to endangered species in the area of the Gold Butterfly Project located in the Sapphire Mountains. The Gold Butterfly project aims to harvest, thin, and prescribe burn forest stands to improve resilience to insects, disease, and wildfire and restore the fire return intervals.

The new Town Pump has opened recently on Huffine Lane outside of Bozeman. It is the largest of the businesses 200 plus locations in the state. The store offers the usual items besides fuel – beer cave, coffee, casino, sports bar and liquor store. 

Celebrated rodeo entertainer Flint Rasmussen will be among rodeo greats inducted into the National Rodeo Hall of Fame in November. The award tradition will continue as rodeo icons are recognized at the Rodeo Hall of Fame Weekend at The National Cowboy Museum on Nov. 8-9. Rasmussen grew up in Choteau, where he was an all-state football and track star in high school.

The one-year anniversary of one of the largest structure fires in downtown Glendive anticipates the pile of rubble that was once the Jordan Inn is set to be cleared. The cleanup of the property at the corner of Merrill Avenue and Benham Street will begin Sept. 30, funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The cleanup effort will also include debris from the adjacent lot where the former Rose Theatre once stood.

The Wallace Works project is located at Wallace Avenue and Tamarack Street in Bozeman The developers got a boost recently when city commission planners voted to approve an urban renewal plan that will reimburse the developers for $2 million in taxes.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has approved the Essential Air Service proposal that provides  subsidies to SkyWest airlines to provide daily flights to and from Salt Lake City and Denver into Butte.

The United States Supreme Court will not hear an emergency appeal effort by power plant owners and utility companies that requested the high court to halt new pollution rules set out by the Biden administration and the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Miles City Parks Initiative is searching available options for a more sustainable way to maintain public spaces in and around Miles City. Funds for parks projects are often being redirected to fill in gaps in other general fund areas, such as police or fire.

Montana will raise the minimum wage by 2.53%. The minimum wage will be $10.55 starting January 1, 2025. In 2023, the industry with the largest number of workers earning minimum wage was the accommodations and food services industry.

Recently the Carbon County Planning Board approved a Development Permit for Croell, Inc., to establish a Concrete Batch Plant in Carbon County. the permit was approved with conditions by the Carbon County Planning Board acting as the County Zoning Board.

Montana State University officials have acknowledged that the university’s online learning platform, Desire2Learn (D2L), allows  the faculty to monitor student activity and potentially track their locations using their Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. IP addresses can be used to determine approximate user location such as city and zipcode.

Kalispell-based Mann Mortgage, operating as a family-owned business, has announced a deal to merge with a national lending company. The business will merge with Synergy One Lending of California.

Cousins Pub has the goal of being a welcoming door to walk through. Cous ins opened recently on  East Main Street in Bozeman.

A group of local, state and nonprofit entities is several years and millions of dollars into a project to clean up and redevelop the 180-acre railyard in Harlowton. The coalition plans to transform the land into a recreation area with trails, campgrounds and fishing access on the Musselshell River.

Rock Creek Resort, in Red Lodge is set to reopen next summer. The property, was sold in April to RCR Holdings, LLC., which includes David and Simona Krug of Krug Development and Daniel Cauley. Columbia Hospitality is acting as the hotel operator. Plans also include bringing the ballroom and the swimming pool closer to the creek experience by updating the windows in the ballroom and swimming pool and installing an outdoor hot tub.

The City of Miles City has adopted its budget for Fiscal Year 2025. The City is preparing for the impacts of significant cuts it had to make. When approved during a special meeting of the city council the budget for the next fiscal year included cutting three positions in the Miles City Police Department and three more in the Fire and Ambulance Department. Chief of Police Doug Columbik provided a statement in which he warned that demand for his department’s service are outpacing the city’s ability to provide them.

Chanelle Hayden has recently promoted to Operations Officer for Stockman Bank in Sidney. Her responsibilities include supervising all operations-related functions for Stockman Bank Sidney. Hayden has been with Stockman Bank since 2014, starting as a CSR and most recently serving as Teller Supervisor.

Misty Anderson has been promoted to Eastern Montana Cash Management Officer for Stockman Bank, Sidney. Her responsibilities include providing assistance to customers and continuing development of Stockman Bank’s eBiz/cash management online banking services.

The North Dakota Public Service Commission has approved a Certificate of Site Compatibility for Calgary, Alberta-based Cerilon Inc. to house its future gas-to-liquids (GTL) facility location southwest of Williston. The press release states the project will include two GTL facilities on the same site. Each facility will be capable of converting 240 million standard cubic feet per day of natural gas to 24,000 barrels per day of liquid hydrocarbon products. It will also generate electric power as a secondary benefit.

The excitement with which Big Sky has greeted a report about more flights out of Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport is an indication of why there is such an emphasize on improving connectivity for Bozeman – it’s called skiing.  The airport will offer flights to Washington, D.C. , on Saturdays, flights to Boston and New York Friday through Sunday and flights to Boise all week. The flights to Boise will increase connectivity between California and the southwest through Alaska Airlines. There will also be flights from Los Angeles, Boston, New York, Chicago, Seattle, Dallas, Denver and Washington, D.C., that land in Bozeman before noon.