About five homeless people a night stayed at temporary warming site at the Gallatin County Fairgrounds last weekend, said Jeff Rupp, president and CEO of the Human Resources Development Council. Mostly, the people who used the warming center were single homeless people in town, Rupp said Monday night. If the center was a more permanent space and there had been more time to spread the word about its location, more homeless families likely would have come, he said. GA_googleFillSlot("BDC_news_instory_300x250"); The temporary warming center, in Exhibit Hall 3, on the north end of the fairgrounds, opened Thursday and is expected to stay open until the middle of this week, Rupp said. The site was set up as a last resort to help homeless people get out of the bitter cold snap last week. "We're hoping to get something at the fairgrounds that's more permanent," Rupp said. The temporary warming center is open from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Blankets and cots will be available, but food will not ...

The wolverine, the elusive mammal that biologists believe was wiped out in the continental United States before re-establishing itself in the northern Rocky Mountains, warrants protection on the endangered species list, the U.S. Wildlife Service said Monday. However, the service said it is "precluded" from actually listing the animal because of more pressing wildlife issues in the United States. The announcement was met with measured celebration from conservation groups that sued FWS to re-examine the wolverine's status last year after the agency had previously found it did not warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act. A Montana state biologist was more wary of a move to list the species. In its finding, the FWS cited global warming as the major threat to the wolverines. Specifically, wolverines need deep snow to reproduce. Female wolverines dig elaborate dens in the snow to protect their offspring from predators and the elements, according to the wildlife service. Current data trends suggest ...

  GA_googleFillSlot("BDC_news_instory_300x250");   Like many areas of the country, new building of residential real estate has fallen off a cliff in 2008 and as not yet recovered.  Once viewed as an easy source of increasing revenue, Bozeman, like many cities in Montana and through out the nation raised impact fees to shore up expanding city budgets.  In addition, Bozeman home builders were required to pick up the tab for much of the new infrastructure associated with new developments.  During the early 2000's, there was enought cushion in project plans to accomodate the increased costs, but when the market started to soften, many of the projects went bust leaving the infrastructure not complete and the city budgets in deficit. To kickstart building, Montana builders and realtors are asking cities like Bozeman to lower their impact fees.   Posted: Friday, October 15, 2010 12:15 am | Updated: 5:55 pm, Thu Oct 14, 2010. Realtors, homebu ...

Land disputes in the Gallatin Valley, Montana going back the formation of Yellostone Club, Spanish Peaks and Big Sky  Resort in the early 1990's.  While the 15 acres of Lone Peak are a small percentage of the land swaps that gave rise the Big Sky's biggest resorts, Lone Peak is a land mark for the Big Sky area making it more than just a mountain.   Article from Bozeman Chronicle:  A Madison County jury has ruled in favor of Big Sky Resort in a lawsuit that pitted some of the biggest names in Big Sky against each other in a bout over who should own a Lone Mountain at 11,000 feet high. A jury ruled that Boyne USA, the Michigan company that owns and operates Big Sky Resort, is the rightful owner of the 15-acre parcel of land on Lone Mountain. As it stands, owners of the upscale Club at Spanish Peaks hold title to the land that skiers would recognize as the upper portion of Liberty Bowl, a popular destination and scenic location for Montana's expert skiers. During ...

  Bozeman - Gateway to SW Montana By KARIN RONNOW, Chronicle Staff Writer  The latest Bozeman cost-of-living report puts the city almost on par with national averages for the first time in four years, according to Prospera Business Network. The third-quarter 2010 report shows Bozeman's composite cost-of-living score at 100.4. "The last time the city reported average consumer expenses this close to national ones was the second quarter of 2006," said Stuart Leidner, Prospera's executive director. The decline in the cost of living here is attributed to "even lower housing costs," which dropped to 3.4 percent below the national average after years of being well above average, Leidner said. In other categories for the third-quarter = Energy prices posted well below national averages, as they have all year. = Health care costs were 4.7 percent above the national average. = Groceries posted at 7.6 percent above the national average, "well within historic trends," Leidner said. = The cost of mi ...

  The affluent have traditionally viewed real estate, even personal use real estate, as part of their overall wealth building strategy. During the past couple of decades, second home properties in Big Sky locations such as Spanish Peaks, Moonlight Basin and The Yellowstone Club have been purchased as much for their investment value as for their recreational benefits.    Second home properties have been viewed as a way to leverage one of the most volatile categories of real estate, the luxury resort home or lot. This leverage was a hands-down winner when new ski\golf communities were selling out in an evening “launch event” and, after going through a gut wrenching for the past two years, resort real estate, and especially Big Sky homes and land may be part of a sensible investment strategy. Capital is now flowing into inflation hedges as concerns about the dollar and euro currency push investors to seek wealth preservation. Commodity prices are booming and stock prices are ...

Opening Day! Bozeman's newest dog park opened Monday to a line of four-legged fans. Dogs, along with their owners, queued up for their turn to run in two new single-dog play areas - meant for one person and their dog at a time - on the northwest side of the Softball Complex off of Highland Boulevard. The play areas serve as an alternative to typical off-leash dog parks in Bozeman. People can exercise their dog alone in the 110-foot-long, 70-foot-wide exercise pens without the "free-for-all" atmosphere at other dog parks, Terry Cunningham said at an opening ceremony for the play areas. Cunningham and Run Dog Run, a nonprofit he and other local dog owners started, collected donations and got discounted materials from Murdoch's Ranch & Home Supply to build the single-dog play areas for the city. The group plans to pay to maintain them as well. "We want to make this a place the city is proud of and never regrets letting us build," Cunningham said. The idea behind the city's newest dog play areas is th ...

  Montana State University The Bozeman area is ready to put its money where its mouth is and support a local tax hike if that's what it would take to create a two-year community college here, community leaders said Monday. Bozeman needs a full-fledged community college, Mayor Jeff Krauss said at a "listening session" held by Sheila Stearns, Montana commissioner of higher education, and Montana State University President Waded Cruzado. About 50 people attended the meeting at the GranTree Inn. Krauss said he really appreciates the progress made this year with the two-year Gallatin College Programs at MSU, but more needs to be done. The program has a new name, a new home in MSU's Hamilton Hall with more space and visibility, and a clearer mission, now that it's being run from Bozeman instead of Great Falls. Bozeman is "the fastest growing urban area in the state," Krauss said, and it needs a community college that can offer night and weekend classes, training in medical and many other fields, and of ...

Shores of Rat Lake Looking to Gallatin Nat'l Forest The changing seasons of southwestern Montana all have a very different and specific personality. Many enjoy the summers in this country, and as many revel in the “cold smoke” that charges our winters, but many find it is the Montana fall that captures their hearts. When the mornings begin to cool and the aspens transition from their summer greens into their autumn blondes and gold’s, there is a special awakening of the soul in those who are fortunate enough to spend time out of doors. The bugle of bull elk rings across the mountain glades, bears are beginning to prepare for their impending slumber, chipmunks and squirrels are topping off their winter stockpiles and preparing for season spent under snow. Fall even has its own smell. It hangs in the woods, indescribable and unique, crisp and invigorating, heavy with earth and unlike any other time of year. Spring has its own scent also, but I have always preferred the perfume o ...