The midwest-based Live Hydration Spa has been opened in Kalispell by Katie and John Pipek. Hydration Spa gives people an option for hydration outside of a hospital setting. Kalispell is the only Montana location. The Spa can tailor bags for each individual patient depending on their goals, symptoms or possible disorders. Live Hydration Spa is located at 135 W Idaho St, Suite B in Kalispell.
The Missoula River Lodge property, prime habitat for local wildlife of all types, is tucked alongside an oxbow and just upstream of the confluence of Sixmile Creek and the Clark Fork. Wildlife biologists and bear managers claim the vicinity of the Sixmile-Clark Fork confluence as one of the most vital wildlife zones in Missoula County. A recent study by the Missoula Bear Smart Working Group found that unsecured garbage is by far the leading cause of human-bear conflicts. Bear managers and biologists have described an epidemic of bears raiding garbage. An enclosure built in June at the fishing lodge is a marquee example of the long-lasting structures of which the group hopes to build more.
Two Helena-based groups will receive a portion of the $1.4 million the Otto Bremer Trust is giving to Montana organizations. Shodair Children’s Hospital will get $250,000 to help build a new hospital to provide pediatric and adolescent mental and behavioral health services. Helena-based Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Montana will get $40,000 for general operations to create and support one-to-one youth mentoring relationships. Bremer is a private charitable trust based in St. Paul, Minnesota, created in 1944 by Otto Bremer.
A plan to develop a long-term facility, the Williston Energy Center, for youth in the City of Williston was presented at Sloulin Field recently by Power Play Project, Inc. The group sees this as being a draw for people in the Dakotas, Montana, and Canada. The plan highlights a remodel and addition to the hangar to build a long-term facility to include a multi-purpose. Plans to allow for general ice activities are included as well as area hockey games. The group’s fundraising target is $25-30 million to cover all the amenities that are designed into the projected facility.
It was early September and Roxann McGuire was walking through the crop rows at Willow Mountain Winery. She strategically sampled grapes off the vines. She was looking for the combination of acid and sweetness that tells her the grape is ready to be harvested. McGuire has trained her palate to be able to taste these flavors. She uses that expertise in a location that isn’t known for its wine prowess — Montana. The grapes that Roxann and Brian McGuire grow here are cold-hardy interspecies hybrids. Nearly all well-known wines like malbec, merlot, chardonnay, and others. V. vinifera is a European grape species that consistently produces great wine but is not amenable to cold environments. But in the last half-century, researchers have been experimenting with breeding V. vinifera with grapes that are indigenous to the US. These interspecies hybrids are more cold-hardy and are more amply disease-resistant. They taste differently from wines with which people are commonly familiar.
According to DNRC, 1,954 fires burned 122,503 acres this season in Montana. Forty-three percent of those fires were human-caused.
Al’s Sporting Goods, a Utah-based retailer with three locations, has acquired all five Bob Ward & Sons locations in Montana. Bob Ward is a sporting goods retailer headquartered in Missoula with other stores in Bozeman, Butte, Helena and Hamilton. No changes in operation are currently planned.
Tonix Pharmaceuticals’ plan to build a new biomanufacturing center just north of the Ravalli County Fairgrounds in Hamilton is hoped to bring more high-tech bioscience jobs to the Bitterroot Valley. The building is expected to be complete in about three years. “This will be the third of our buildings — we have a facility near Frederick, Maryland, a process development facility south of Boston,” said Tonix CEO Dr. Seth Lederman. “This will be the later stage one where products are vetted. Here we can supply the world.”
North Dakota’s eight commercial service airports posted a total of 84,925 airline passenger boardings during the month of September, 2022. This is a 13% increase from the 74,943 boardings that the state experienced last year in September, 2021. It is also only 5% below September 2019’s pre-pandemic passenger counts of 89,925.
Michelle Becker and Taylor Dietz of Montana Steakburgers currently have one Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers’ location in Montana and are set to open four new Freddy’s across the state. The stores will open in Flathead, Missoula, Cascade, and Lewis & Clark counties. Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers is a fast-casual franchise concept with more than 440 locations across 36 states nationwide. Founded in Wichita, Kansas, in 2002, the brand offers a combination of cooked-to-order steakburgers, all-beef hot dogs, shoestring fries and other savory items.