infrastructure

With an eye on future transportation needs, the City of Missoula is chipping away at its Long-Range Transportation Plan and prioritizing roughly 200 projects – many of which have no funding.

While the Missoula City Council levied 2 mills to fund homeless service this week, Missoula County on Wednesday said it plans to pull its infrastructure levy from the November ballot, citing concerns over ever-rising taxes.

As Missoula Montana Airport navigates a record summer, it's also welcoming $3.4 million in additional federal funding to close out one of its major projects.

The measure would generate roughly $1.7 million a year, helping fill what county officials described as a lack of funding available for infrastructure needs.

Several development proposals made their City Council debut on Wednesday, including the rezoning of a parcel on Brooks Street and another related to a subdivision planned in East Missoula.

While Missoula County eyes a small tax increase to funds its FY 25 budget, on Thursday, it will also consider asking voters to levy additional mills to pay for ongoing costs and expenses of maintaining public roads, bridges and trails.

Passenger numbers continued to climb in July and the airport is lobbying for more capacity at its security check point, along with year-round service to Chicago.

With development booming and transportation issues looming, members of the City Council on Wednesday approved funding to begin making improvements to Scott Street.

Missoula's mayor on Monday night spoke at length about last week's storm that devastated the city's power grid, toppled thousands of trees and forced residents to restrict water use for several days.

Brian Bird writes, "NorthWestern Energy prepares all year, around the clock, so that our system delivers reliable energy service to you. Our service is critical to almost every aspect of life."