Editorials

ENTERPRISE EDITORIAL: Growth policy update complete, now let’s put it to use

Park County has an updated growth policy.

Now it’s up to our county commissioners to put it to work.

Commissioners and county staff spent several years fine tuning the growth policy via workshops, questionnaires and countless interviews with residents and a wide range of stakeholders.

Some resisted the effort, but commissioners persisted in updating the non-regulatory document in accordance with state law.

Apartment units get nixed, as housing problem remains

Well, so much for that.

The Livingston City Commission denied NorthTown Livingston a zoning change to build 14 four-unit apartments, for a total of 56 units, on Livingston’s north side.

The arguments for and against the units are well known. 

For: Livingston has a tight rental market; we are experiencing population pressure from Bozeman; it’s hard for employers to find housing for their workers, which means companies might not want to move here; a bigger tax base; and good construction jobs to build the units.

GUEST EDITORIAL: Bison Range needs comprehensive conservation plan

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke should follow up on his baffling announcement last week concerning “changing course” on the National Bison Range with some actual leadership on this critical issue.

That means he will need to explain exactly what his opposition is to the plan to transfer management of the range to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, and explain what actions he is taking to stop the proposal that is currently wending its way through the federal system.

City Commission erred in closing budget meeting

The Livingston City Commission made a disappointing and unusual decision Tuesday when it shut the public out of discussions about next year’s budget.

Those in attendance at the meeting, including a reporter from The Livingston Enterprise, were asked to leave the meeting, and the commission went into a closed executive session to discuss the possibility of eliminating one or more positions within the local government.

ENTERPRISE EDITORIAL: New city manager has big job ahead

The long search for a Livingston city manager is over, and now it’s time for the new executive to get to work.

The City of Livingston welcomed Michael Kardoes in early April. Kardoes took the reins from acting City Manager Lisa Lowy, the city’s Administrative Services director, who ably filled the post for a very long time — since October 2015, when then-City Manager Ed Meece left.

GUEST EDITORIAL: Standing ovations then — racist today

It is not often that the Washington Post will cite the pitfalls of uncontrolled immigration.

And they are not alone.

Typically the reporting by the Post – and network television and the New York Times – tends to take the gracious line toward immigration.

Top 10 dumb things not to do this summer

With the recent sunny, calm days, thoughts of summer begin slipping into our minds. 

We know several snowstorms still lie between us and Park County’s “glory months” of June through October that keep us all living here, but it’s still a good time to think about all the stupid things we’ll refrain from when they arrive.

So here are the Top 10 Dumb Things Not to Do This Summer. We resolve we will NOT:

GUEST EDITORIAL: The most dumbfounding comment of the 65th session?

Montana Senate President Scott Sales (R-Bozeman) took a peculiar stance last week when testifying against Senate Bill 354, which would increase the state tax on cigarettes by $1.50 per pack to $3.20.

“The dirty little secret is, if we really want to be honest, a smoker probably saves us money in the long run,” Sales said, adding “they don’t end up in a Medicaid-funded old-folks home until they’re 105 at taxpayers’ expense.”

ENTERPRISE EDITORIAL: SGMS students win big at Billings science fair

Hats off to the seventh-grade Sleeping Giant Middle School students who brought home numerous awards from Saturday’s Billings Clinic Science Expo.

Student Nikolas Pierson should be all smiles this week for not only winning, but winning big time at the event.

Nikolas took home the Beartooth Stock Association Stock Raisers Achievement Award, which is typically reserved for high school students.

Way to go, Nikolas!

ENTERPRISE EDITORIAL: Time to take care of Montana’s history

Time to take care of Montana’s history

 

We recently stood on a sidewalk on Livingston’s west side and looked down at the construction date stamped into the cement — 1906 — and pondered all the history that had flown by since that day: The sinking of the Titanic, World War I, the great influenza outbreak, the discovery of penicillin, World War II, the Vietnam War.

It was as if all of that history was compressed into a single impression in the cement.