Parents should make sure they have arrangements in place for the care of their minor-aged children when planning their estates, according to Montana State University Extension.

To make sure parents’ wishes are followed, Marsha Goetting, MSU Extension family and economics specialist, and Wendy Wedum, MSU Extension family and consumer sciences/4-H agent in Pondera County, suggest parents create a will that names a guardian and a conservator in case both parents die.

A guardianship provides for the care of the children until age 18 and grants the power and responsibility of a parent. A guardian makes decisions about a child’s upbringing, schooling and medical treatment. A conservatorship provides for management and distribution of money, property and assets left to children until they are 18. One person can perform both roles, or separate individuals can be named guardian and conservator.

“Often the most difficult decisions parents face is agreeing who they want to have the responsibility of raising their children and managing their money,” Goetting said. “Parents usually choose someone whose values, lifestyle and child rearing beliefs are like theirs.”

Goetting added that discussing the issue with older children is wise because Montana law allows youth ages 14 and older to request a court to appoint a guardian other than the person named in parents’ wills.

Goetting and Wedum said that attorneys recommend parents nominate a backup guardian and conservator in case their first choices aren’t able. Parents should also reevaluate their choices periodically.

Montana law says that when children reach age 18, they receive the property that was in the care of a conservator, regardless of their capability to manage it. A more flexible alternative to a conservatorship is leaving assets in a trust.

In their wills, parents can indicate which assets pass directly to the trust, also known as a testamentary trust. That can include life insurance payments, funds from checking accounts, stocks, bonds, or other funds.

“Parents can prepare a trust agreement giving their selected trustee the power to manage the trust assets and use the income for their children’s benefits,” Wedum said.

The trust agreement becomes effective only upon the death of both parents. The agreement states how parents wish the money to be spent, who the trustee should be, and when the trust terminates. The trustee must follow the parents’ directions for health, education and support of the children as outlined in the agreement and writes checks for the trust account for the children’s living expenses, education and other costs.

More information about estate planning for parents with minor children and revocable living trusts is available in MSU Extension MontGuides and online at http://www.montana.edu/estateplanning/eppublications.html. For those who do not have computer access, copies are available from county Extension or reservation offices.

As the days get longer and warmer, Big Sky Resort will begin a phased opening for summer activities on Friday, May 22.

“Our leadership team has been working diligently to develop a summer operations plan that follows state and local health guidelines, and takes the safety of our guests, employees, and community seriously,” said Troy Nedved, general manager, Big Sky Resort.


GOLF
To kick off Memorial Day Weekend, Big Sky Resort Golf Course will open on Friday, May 22. Reservations for tee times are available online now. Golf memberships will be available online on Tuesday, May 12, providing season-long access at a discounted rate for a limited time.

The Bunker Deck and Grill at the Big Sky Golf Course will be open daily starting Friday, May 29, for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The Bunker will offer limited outdoor seating, delivery on the course and take out options to encourage safe social distancing practices.


BIKING AND SCENIC RIDES
Mountain Biking and Scenic Lift Rides will open for the summer season on Friday, June 26. Both Ramcharger 8 and Explorer chairlifts will run daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Swift Current lift will run on Saturday and Sunday throughout the summer for biking and scenic rides, providing access to Big Sky’s 50 miles of hiking and biking trails. 


DINING
Vista Hall and Vista Bar in Mountain Village will be open daily beginning Friday, June 26. Guests can choose between a wide variety of cuisines – including burgers, poke and bowls, soups and salads, coffee and espresso, and stone-fired pizza. In addition to plentiful indoor and outdoor seating at Vista Hall and Vista Bar, take out options are also available. 


LODGING
The Whitewater Inn, located on Highway 191, will begin welcoming guests for the summer season on Friday, May 22. Lodging reservations can be made online, or by calling Big Sky Resort Reservations at 800.548.4486. 

Opening dates for additional Big Sky Resort lodging properties, recreation, and services will be announced soon. 


Please visit our website for information on social distancing and safety practices in light of COVID-19. 


All summer products, passes and activities will be available for purchase online beginning Tuesday, May 12. 


Nedved says that though this summer may look a little different, Big Sky Resort is focused on finding the right balance to recreate safely in the mountains and meadows of Big Sky. 


“We look forward to safely welcoming guests back to Big Sky to golf, hike and ride in our beautiful summer playground. We ask that all of our guests continue to follow social distancing practices to help protect themselves and others,” said Nedved.

The flush of a toilet is usually paid little mind once its contents disappear into the maze of pipes that converge at a municipal facility to be processed. But that wastewater may prove to be a valuable resource in combatting the COVID-19 pandemic, according to researchers at Montana State University.

A team lead by MSU scientist Blake Wiedenheft was able to detect the novel coronavirus in samples taken at Bozeman's Water Reclamation Facility, which handles millions of gallons of wastewater produced each day by the city's roughly 50,000 residents.

Seven sewage samples, taken during a 17-day period in March and April, revealed levels of the virus that tracked with a rise in the number of COVID-19 cases reported in the Bozeman area and then declined after state-mandated social distancing. That suggests that the wastewater measurements are a reliable indicator of the local prevalence of the disease, Wiedenheft said.

"This may be one of the most important indicators to follow," said Wiedenheft, associate professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology in MSU's College of Agriculture. "Our hope is that this approach will become more common and that communities can use wastewater monitoring as an early warning sign of coronavirus infections."

Because it's thought that individuals can be sick with COVID-19 and spread the disease for up to two weeks before showing symptoms, being able to detect increased levels of the virus in wastewater could help health officials make decisions about social distancing and other containment measures before a tide of sickened patients arrive at hospitals seeking testing and medical treatment, Wiedenheft noted.

At the end of April, Gallatin County — including Bozeman — had reported a total of 146 COVID-19 cases, suggesting that the MSU team's tests detected virus molecules from a relatively small number of infected individuals.

"One of the biggest questions right now is whether we can translate the prevalence of the virus in wastewater into an estimate of the actual number of people who are infected," Wiedenheft said, adding that his lab is currently working with other researchers at MSU on experiments that could help provide answers.

The idea for the study came from MSU researchers in assistant professor of microbiology and immunology Raina Plowright's lab who gather feces and urine from bats to study how the animals transmit viruses such as Henipavirus to humans. Plowright was aware of earlier studies indicating that people infected with COVID-19 similarly shed the coronavirus. Collaborating as part of a team of MSU scientists responding to the pandemic, the bat researchers suggested that Wiedenheft try a wastewater study in his lab, which normally studies how viruses infect bacteria.

Wiedenheft said he was skeptical. "As I was driving down to wastewater plant to collect a liter of wastewater from the millions of gallons processed by this facility in a single day, it seemed unlikely that we'd have the required sensitivity," he said.

Although preparing the wastewater samples involved a labor-intensive filtration process, the rest of the procedure was essentially the same as testing a nasal swab from a sick patient, said Wiedenheft, who was part of an MSU team that recently repurposed some of MSU's genome-analyzing research equipment to expand patient testing capabilities at Bozeman Health Deaconess Hospital.

According to an article published in early April in the journal Nature, more than a dozen research groups around the world are studying the coronavirus in wastewater. Wiedenheft's study, described in a paper co-authored with six others in his lab and published in preliminary form on April 20, is among the first to document coronavirus levels in wastewater in relation to infection rates.

Additionally, several students in the Wiedenheft lab mapped portions of the genome of the coronavirus found in Bozeman's wastewater and found that the genetic sequences matched strains that are currently circulating in New York City and originally came from Europe, Wiedenheft said.

Documenting the different strains could provide additional useful information to health officials and could help with estimating the total number of COVID-19 cases in a community, according to Alex Washburne, a research scientist in Plowright's lab. He co-authored a preliminary paper in April with researchers at Penn State University and Cornell University that correlated a rise in COVID-19 cases nationwide with the number of flu tests that reported negative results.

"We think that wastewater can be particularly useful as an estimate of overall change in COVID-19 cases in a community," Washburne said. "If we see that number starting to go up, we can turn on other monitoring systems," such as more widespread individual testing, he said.

Jason Carter, MSU vice president for research, economic development and graduate education, said that the study "is yet another example of the rapid innovation that our faculty are applying to the COVID-19 pandemic. This research has real potential to inform public health officials and help our community."

Wiedenheft said there are likely to be technical challenges that come with scaling up the approach. Still, he said community leaders and officials from around the state and world have been contacting his team to learn more. "These people want what’s best for their communities, and if wastewater can be used as one of the metrics for monitoring the outbreak, then this has important impacts for health of our citizens and health of our economy," he said.

Members of the Wiedenheft lab who contributed to the study are Murat Buyukyoruk, graduate student; Anna Nemudraia, postdoctoral fellow; Artem Nemudryi, postdoctoral fellow; Kevin Surya, graduate student; Tanner Wiegand, graduate student; Royce Wilkinson, research assistant professor of microbiology and immunology.

Governor Steve Bullock Tuesday May 5 announced that families, small businesses, non-profits, health services centers and individuals across Montana hardest-hit by impacts of COVID-19 will be eligible to apply for grants through nine new programs created in response to the emergency.

Guided by more than 1,400 public comments and his Coronavirus Relief Fund Advisory Council, Governor Bullock is making $123,550,000 available in the first round of emergency grants funded through the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. 

“Montanans have made it clear it’s imperative that we step in and do everything possible to ensure small businesses can responsibly reopen, non-profits continue to serve our vibrant communities, homeowners can stay in their homes, and Montanans most in-need have access to services,” Governor Bullock said. “We’re all in this together and I know Montana will emerge from this challenge even stronger than before.”

Beginning Thursday, May 7, Montanans out of work, families with limited resources, small businesses, non-profits and others can apply for financial relief for things like rental and mortgage assistance, business and non-profit grants, grants to serve seniors and those living with a disability, food banks and local food producers.

The following new programs join the state’s suite of existing support services and direct federal appropriations:

• The Montana Business Stabilization Grant program will provide working capital for Montana-owned small businesses with 50 or fewer employees that have sustained a loss of revenue due to COVID 19. Current funding available is $50 million, the maximum award amount per business is $10,000.  
• The Montana Innovation Grant program is intended to help companies scale up, improve capabilities, or drive expanded distribution of products or services developed in response to COVID-19. Non-profit and for-profit businesses of less than 150 employees with primary operations in Montana that have created an innovative product or service intended to directly confront the COVID-19 emergency can apply for grants of up to $25,000. Current funding available is $5 million.
• Montana Food and Agriculture Adaptability Program grants are available to food and agriculture businesses to help increase community resilience amid the COVID-19 pandemic and other economic disruptions. Examples of eligible projects include those focused on accessing new markets, projects which strengthen and expand local food systems, and other business adaptations that decrease food and agricultural waste. Current funding available is $500,000, with a maximum grant award of $10,000.
• Emergency Housing Assistance Program will provide rent, security deposit, mortgage payment, and/or hazard insurance assistance as-needed for Montanans who have lost a job or substantial income loss as a result of COVID-19. Initial payments may include up to three months assistance where the eligible household can demonstrate arrears for April and May, with continuable inability to make their June payment. Montana Housing will pay the difference between 30 percent of the household’s current gross monthly income and their eligible housing assistance costs, up to $2,000 a month. Household income limits range from $75,000-$125,000 based on family size. Montanans receiving other forms of housing assistance are not eligible. Total funding available is $50 million. 
• Public Health Grants are available to local and tribal health departments and urban tribal clinics to help in the response to COVID-19 and to meet the needs of their communities. Each organization is eligible to apply for funding. Current funding available is $5 million.
• Stay Connected Grants ranging from $500-$2,000 per applicant are available to reduce social isolation among Montana’s seniors. Eligible applicants include area agencies on aging, assisted living facilities, nursing homes, and tribal elder services. Grant funds can be used to fund technologies and other efforts to encourage physically distant forms of social interaction for elderly Montanans during the COVID-19 public health emergency. Current funding available is $400,000.
• Food Bank and Food Pantry Assistance of up to $50,000 per applicant are available to increase food security for Montanans hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Eligible applicants include community organizations providing food assistance to Montanans with limited resources, food banks, food pantries, community cupboards, and entities with infrastructures already in place to begin new food distribution programs. Current funding available is $2 million.
• Social Services Nonprofit Grants of up to $10,000 per applicant are available for nonprofit organizations impacted by the COVID-19 public health emergency to retain existing programs and services, employees, or organizational viability for provision of future services and operations. Eligible applicants are registered, Montana-based social service nonprofits that were operating prior to February 15, 2020. Current funding available is $10 million.
• Telework Assistance Grants of up to $1,000 per individual will go towards purchasing equipment to assist Montanans with disabilities access telework equipment. DPHHS will partner with a local non-profit organization to assess and support assistive technology needs of individuals with disabilities during COVID-19. This assistance will help ensure people with disabilities have the equipment needed to adapt to the change in working environment due to COVID-19. Current funding available is $650,000.

A comprehensive information resource and application portal is available at COVIDRELIEF.MT.GOV. The application portion of the website will go live at 8:00 a.m. on Thursday, May 7. To prepare for the application, businesses and non-profits should have their tax ID, proof of business registration, a brief description of how the grant will be spent, and a brief description of how COVID-19 has impacted operations. Homeowners and renters should have bank account information available and verification of job or income loss.

 
Montana State University Extension will offer free webinars throughout the month of May as a way of fostering social connection and learning.

The webinars are planned for noon on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays in May, with topics focused on food supply, home maintenance, nutrition, financial health, mental health and more. Classes may be added on Mondays and Fridays.

The webinars will include a time for questions and answers at the end of the presentations. Programs are recorded for future viewing. 

Katelyn Andersen, MSU Extension agent in Ravalli County, said MSU Extension has already produced multiple recordings of online webinars spanning the topics of mental health, financial health, exercise and nutrition, and gardening.

Andersen said the webinars began April 1 with a goal of providing 15 to 20 minutes of education that could serve to connect a statewide audience with opportunities for questions and interactions. As classes were curated, some presentations lengthened from 20 minutes to 50 minutes.

“The goal was to provide social connections virtually through Extension faculty with relevant content information to help everyone stay calm during the changes of stay-at-home orders and to keep morale up,” Andersen said.

Webinars offered throughout May can be found online at noon at this meeting link: https://montana.webex.com/meet/r41d688. Participants are invited to log on at 11:55 a.m.

For more information about upcoming topics, visit MSU Extension’s Facebook page at facebook.com/msuextension. To view past recordings, visit the MSU Extension Ravalli County YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn7YUfpXK993XZhZESbxyYQ.

Montana State University’s colleges will commemorate the spring class of 2020 with Virtual College Celebrations scheduled for Thursday, May 7, through Saturday, May 9.

Every graduating student in the spring class of 2020 will receive a personalized invitation from their respective dean for their event, which will be streamed online.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the university will not hold in-person commencement events. Spring 2020 graduates are instead invited to attend fall commencement on Dec. 19. Each graduate will also receive in the mail a celebratory “Commencement in a Box,” filled with balloons, their diploma cover and more to mark the monumental moment from home.

Information for each college event can be found at https://www.montana.edu/commencement/colleges/. The website will be updated to include links to where each program will be streamed. The start time and date for each college celebration is as follows:

Thursday, May 7

• 7 p.m. - Honors College

Friday, May 8

• 11 a.m. - Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering
• 12:30 p.m. – College of Nursing Caring for Our Own Program Celebration
• 2 p.m. - College of Nursing
• 3 p.m. - College of Education, Health and Human Development
• 3 p.m. - Jake Jabs College of Business and Entrepreneurship Master of Professional Accountancy Celebration
• 4 p.m. - Gallatin College
• 4:30 p.m. - College of Agriculture
• 5 p.m. - Jake Jabs College of Business and Entrepreneurship

Saturday, May 9

• 9 a.m. - Graduate School
• 11 a.m. - College of Letters and Science
• 3:30 p.m. - College of Arts and Architecture

Diplomas will be mailed in July to each graduate upon a successful completion of degree requirements.

For more information and for contact information for each college, visit https://www.montana.edu/commencement/colleges/.

For people seeking updated information on caring for a Montana yard and garden, details on backyard landscaping and lawn care, and growing perennials, fruits and vegetables, many free fact sheets are available from Montana State University Extension.

MSU Extension has revised and updated more than 20 yard and garden fact sheets, called MontGuides, in time for the spring growing season. The publications were updated by Cheryl Moore-Gough, MSU Extension horticulture specialist, and other topic experts.

“Information presented by MSU Extension experts gives the reader timely, unbiased and research-based information that can be depended on,” Moore-Gough said. “There is much advice available online that doesn’t pertain to Montana’s growing conditions and just won’t work here. These factsheets have been authored and reviewed by multiple experts, assuring their accuracy for Montana’s environment. The fact that these informative publications are available as free downloads is a huge benefit to Montanans.”

MSU Extension MontGuides are available as free PDF downloads from MSU Extension online at https://store.msuextension.org/. Printed copies can be ordered online or by calling 406-994-3273.

 MontanaPBS will livestream the sixth and final installment of a broadcast special, “Answering Questions About Coronavirus,” at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 30. The program will be available to view on-air, online at montanapbs.org/live and on the MontanaPBS Facebook page.

During the special program, host John Twiggs will talk via video conference with Dr. Greg Holzman, the state medical officer; Montana Army National Guard Maj. Gen. Matthew Quinn, head of the governor’s Coronavirus Task Force; and Patrick Barkey, director of the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of Montana. Twiggs will also interview Gov. Steve Bullock.

In his stay-at-home directive, Bullock included outdoor activities as “essential” – and Montanans listened. While national parks remain closed, Montana state parks are seeing a 60% visitor increase. With state campgrounds set to open Friday, MontanaPBS’ Breanna McCabe will report on what park visitors can expect in the weeks ahead.

Meanwhile, salons, restaurants and churches from across the state are navigating a phased reopening plan, but some may wonder what that means for each entity individually. MontanaPBS news and public affairs producer Jackie Coffin will check in with local businesses to see how they are planning to reopen, or remain closed, in light of the new directives.

Phone operators will take audience questions at 1-888-828-5876. Viewers can also submit questions via Facebook by following MontanaPBS or emailing online@montanapbs.org.

The broadcast is anticipated to last 60 minutes. Additional resources, web links and previous episodes are available at montanapbs.org/

For years, Montana State University researcher Raina Plowright’s work has studied bats and the viruses they carry and spread. Now, with the emergence of the novel coronavirus pandemic, Plowright’s research is timelier than ever.

Plowright said the virus that causes COVID-19, called SARS-CoV-2, originated in bats and is the third coronavirus to move from bats to humans in two decades. She and collaborators in Australia, Bangladesh, Ghana and Madagascar are researching how to prevent the spread of other viruses from animals to humans — a process known as spillover. That work begins by understanding how viruses exist in bats and how widespread they are among bats in various locations.

“Thankfully, we’ve collected a huge dataset over space and time in bat populations in multiple countries,” said Plowright, an assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology in MSU’s College of Agriculture and principal investigator in the Bozeman Disease Ecology Lab. “Now, we can screen our samples for coronaviruses and other viruses that may interact with coronaviruses.” 

Plowright’s work has also examined Hendra virus and Nipah virus, both of which can also be carried by bats, leading to the extensive collection of samples that can also be used in the new research. She said it’s unknown whether SARS-CoV-2 spread directly from bats to humans or whether it first infected an intermediary species. The researchers in her lab will screen those existing samples to see how many contain coronaviruses and where those samples were collected. That may offer insight into how SARS-CoV-2 made its way into humans.

“Coronaviruses are well known for their ability to recombine parts of their genomes when two viruses infect cells in the same animal. So, it could have had a bit of a genetic mix-up in a different host,” she said. “We’re working to understand coronaviruses in bats as well as looking of the role of bats in not just this, but also future spillovers.”

In addition to analyzing the samples they already have, Plowright and her team are moving forward with research to help Bozeman, Gallatin County and the state of Montana respond to the ongoing pandemic. Work in the state includes research with Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton to examine aerosol transmission of the virus and preventive measures; monitoring the spread of COVID-19 in Montana’s communities; and creating predictive computer models.

“We are working with local epidemiologists and other researchers here at MSU to provide forecasts to the community on when to expect peaks, the capacity of local ICUs and so on,” she said. The hope with predictive modeling is to develop a toolkit for reopening local, state and national economies and allowing individuals to return to workplaces.

The more information governments have on how the virus spreads and the potential ramifications of reopening, the more they can prevent future spikes in infection and death, said Plowright, something that is true the world over. An international graduate student and postdoctoral fellow are also helping efforts in their home countries of Chile and Uruguay, monitoring the progress of their outbreaks and aiding in the exchange of scientific information to help local pandemic response teams.

“I have a lab full of brilliant young disease ecologists,” she said. “These are young people with great expertise and advanced degrees in public health and disease ecology. They have found themselves in a real-time response to a real-life pandemic.”

With new discoveries still being made as scientists examine SARS-CoV-2 and a wealth of information available to the public, Plowright’s students and fellow researchers have also created a resource to interpret cutting-edge information so that it can be understood by everyone. They created the Disease Ecology Lab COVID-19 Blog, which answers common questions related to the novel coronavirus and provides understandable summaries of new scientific and medical discoveries. As the world has shifted into high gear to understand COVID-19, Plowright said it is critical that each individual does what they can to protect their community.

“Few groups can study bats and understand the dynamics of these infections in bat populations,” she said. “Our work is to understand how these pathogens spill over and how we can prevent future pandemics is unique. But in terms of responding to the current pandemic, we are doing the same thing that many people around the world are doing, right? We’re trying to do our very best for our community, protect people who are vulnerable and reduce the number of people who are sick and who die from this disease.”