THREE FORKS – Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks is implementing a new lottery system for managing hunting access at Missouri Headwaters State Park.

Missouri Headwaters State Park offers quality wildlife habitat and diverse recreation opportunities. As interest in hunting in the park grows alongside general park visitation, FWP staff are looking to manage hunting access in a way that ensures the safety of all visitors while keeping the park open for hunting where appropriate.

Beginning this season, hunting access at Missouri Headwaters State Park will be managed through a lottery reservation system. Those who wish to hunt in the park must complete an online application the week before they plan to hunt, choosing up to three days as possible hunting dates. Up to six hunters will be selected randomly for each day. Those hunters will receive an email with hunting rules, a map with safety zones, and a tag for their vehicle.

The online application will be open each Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. from Aug. 26 through Jan. 6, with hunting dates available weekly from Sept. 1 through Jan. 15. Hunters will be selected one week at a time.

For example, those who wish to hunt in the park any time from Sept. 1 through 6 will fill out the application on Wednesday, Aug. 26. Up to six hunters will be selected randomly for each day of that hunting period. If those hunters wish to hunt on future dates, they must fill out a new application.

To access the application starting Aug. 26, click here.

Those planning to hunt in the park after Jan. 15 must stop by the visitor center during business hours for a permission slip. 

Other hunting rules apply, including a weapons restriction and a safety closure near park facilities. Upland bird hunting will be limited to a certain portion of the park, while deer and waterfowl hunting will be open in additional areas. To see the map, a complete list of rules and a lottery schedule, click here. 

“Missouri Headwaters State Park provides a variety of recreation opportunities for thousands of visitors each year,” said park manager Alice Southworth. “We’re hopeful this new approach to managing hunting access in the park will help ensure visitor safety while maintaining the opportunities many people enjoy.”

Within the boundaries of Missouri Headwaters State Park, the Jefferson, Madison and Gallatin rivers merge to form the Missouri River, the longest river in the U.S. The site is significant to Native American peoples and was visited by members of the Corps of Discovery in 1805. Now a national historic landmark, the park hosts thousands of visitors each year. The park is about 5 miles northeast of Three Forks on Trident Road. For more information about the park, click here or call 406-285-3610.

BOZEMAN —The City of Bozeman is updating its Urban Forest Management Plan (UFMP) and continuing with public engagement for the project. All are invited to the in-person UFMP Public Engagement Meeting on Aug. 31 from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Bozeman Public Safety Center, 901 N Rouse Avenue. This will be the final formally scheduled public engagement meeting for the UFMP update process.

“We’ve learned a lot through this process and are eager to see residents’ thoughts on our draft plan,” said Alex Nordquest, Forestry Manager at the City of Bozeman. “If you haven’t been involved yet, now is the time. Feedback at this stage is critical as it helps to inform our final plan.”

The UFMP Update builds on the 2016 framework to ensure sustainable, holistic, and efficient management of the city’s urban forest. The updated plan will guide Forestry Division operations, planning, and public outreach, incorporating professional analysis and community input through meetings with staff, officials, and local stakeholders. Key components of the plan include community engagement; tree infrastructure; staffing and equipment; planning and development integration; and insect, disease, and disaster preparedness.

During the most recent public engagement meeting for the plan update, the project team presented the draft UFMP that has since been posted for public review and comment. The public comment period will begin on Monday, Aug. 17 and run through Tuesday, Sept. 15, allowing ample time for Plan review and comment formulation and submittal.

Comments can be provided during the meeting on Aug. 31 or by emailing comments@Bozemanmt.gov.

For more information on the UFMP Update and to sign up to receive updates on the project, visit the project website at engage.bozemanmt.gov/urbanforest.

BOZEMAN – Construction is underway on the City of Bozeman’s West Kagy to Babcock Sewer Improvements project. Crews are working 24-hour shifts to complete work at the South 3rd Avenue/West Kagy Boulevard/South Willson Avenue intersection before the school year begins.

Starting late next week, a full closure of South 3rd Avenue will be implemented while construction crews work on the manhole on the southeast corner of the intersection, near Crossings Kitchen. South 3rd Avenue will be closed to all directions of traffic between the West Kagy Boulevard intersection and West Graf Street but will remain open for local residents and business access. Detour signs will direct northbound through traffic on South 3rd Avenue to take West Graf Street to South 11th Avenue.

When work at the South 3rd Avenue/West Kagy Boulevard/South Willson Avenue intersection is complete and the intersection is reopened, crews will begin working on the West Kagy Boulevard and South Tracy Avenue intersection. The public can expect intermittent closures along South Tracy Avenue beginning the week of August 24, weather and other factors permitting.

In addition to the upcoming closures on South 3rd Avenue and South Tracy Avenue, the City of Bozeman has issued the following travel advisories:

Starting this week, there will be intermittent closures of the westbound left-turn lane from West Kagy Boulevard into the Museum of the Rockies’ (MOR) main entrance. During these closures, signs will be in place directing westbound MOR visitors to take South 7th Avenue into the museum’s staff parking lot and then follow the service drive to the visitor parking lot.

Access to the business center at the corner of West Kagy Boulevard and South 3rd Avenue is and will continue to be available throughout construction.

Pedestrians and bicyclists must follow all traffic control and posted signage. Barricades and other devices are in place to maintain worker and public safety.

The purpose of the West Kagy to Babcock Sewer Improvements project is to replace aging sewer pipelines to maintain a resilient and reliable sewer system in southwest Bozeman. The project will be completed in two phases over the next couple of years, beginning with the West Kagy Boulevard upgrades this summer. The next phase of the project includes sewer improvements in a residential area between West Babcock and West College Street—near Cooper Park—which is tentatively planned for spring 2027.

More information about the West Kagy to Babcock Sewer Improvements project can be found at https://bit.ly/kagysewer. To sign up for email or text alerts, click the “eNotifications” link at the top of the page.

HELENA – The Montana State Shooting Facilities and Improvements Development and Oversight Task Force will meet Monday, Aug. 10, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The meeting will be held on Zoom.  

The task force is responsible for identifying shooting facility needs in Montana and is tasked with developing a set of recommendations for the development, location and administrative structure of state shooting facilities and improvements. The deadline for the recommendations is June 30, 2027.  

“We learned a lot about shooting facilities in South Dakota, Wyoming and Colorado,” said task force co-chair Rep. Kerri Seekins-Crowe of Billings. “We also heard from over 1,400 shooters in Montana about the facility needs in our state. We will use all this information as we draft our recommendations.”   

The public is invited to watch the meeting and participate in the public feedback session. For the Zoom link and more information about the task force, click here.     

“We appreciate the passion and participation from the public,” said task force co-chair Sen. John Fuller of Kalispell. “Our recommendations will reflect that passion and benefit shooters in the entire state.” 

The espresso machine is usually the biggest single line item in a new cafe budget, and in the Gallatin Valley it has to compete with rent, a build out, and a hood system before you have poured a single shot. That is why a refurbished espresso machine looks so good on paper. A two or three group machine that was out of reach new suddenly fits the number, and the listing photos look immaculate.

The catch is that "refurbished" is not a regulated word. It can mean a full teardown, new seals and a pressure test by a certified technician, or it can mean somebody ran a cleaning cycle and wiped down the panels. Here are ten things to check before you pay, ordered roughly the way a technician would walk through the machine.

Start With the Machine Itself
Bozeman has a real coffee scene and a lot of people quietly shopping used gear for it. The three checks below are the ones that decide whether you bought a workhorse or a project.

1. Boiler condition and scale
Ask directly whether the boiler was opened, descaled, inspected or replaced, and ask for photographs of the inside, not just the exterior panels. Scale is the slow killer on commercial machines. It insulates the heating element, drags down recovery time between shots, and it hides behind a machine that looks perfect from the front. A seller who has genuinely been inside the boiler will have photos and will be happy to show you. A seller who changes the subject has told you something.

2. Group heads and gaskets
Group gaskets, shower screens and dispersion blocks are wear items, and they are cheap to replace compared to what they cost you when they fail during a Saturday rush. Ask when they were last changed. Then look at the group itself for pitting, corrosion and burned in coffee oils around the seal. If you can, watch the machine pull a live shot and check that each group holds pressure and does not weep around the portafilter.

3. Pump and motor
On a rotary pump machine, listen to it. A healthy motor runs at a steady hum, not a rattle or a whine that climbs. Ask whether the pump has been rebuilt or replaced, and whether the machine holds a stable brew pressure across a full shot. Any seller who cannot tell you the pump's history probably did not touch it.

Check What Your Building Can Actually Give It
This is where most first time buyers get caught out, and it has nothing to do with the machine's condition. A perfect machine in the wrong building is still an expensive paperweight.

4. The electrical supply you actually have
Commercial espresso machines are not all the same animal electrically. Two and three group machines commonly need 220 to 240 volt service on a dedicated circuit, and the amperage draw varies by model. Before you buy anything, find out what your space has and what your panel can carry, and get an electrician to confirm it in writing. Retrofitting a circuit in an older downtown Bozeman building can cost real money and take real time, and that budget has to sit alongside the machine, not after it.

5. Plumbing and drainage
Most commercial machines need a plumbed in water line and a proper drain, not a drip tray you empty by hand. Check where the nearest supply and drain are relative to where the machine will live on your bar, and check what your landlord and the local health inspector will allow you to change. Food truck and mobile setups need a completely different conversation about tanks, pumps and capacity before you commit to a plumbed machine.

6. Water hardness and treatment
Whatever water your building draws, get it tested and budget for filtration and softening from day one. A refurbished espresso machine that was descaled last month will scale up again just as fast as a new one if you run untreated hard water through it. Ask the seller what treatment the machine was on in its previous life, because a unit that spent years on filtered water in a well run cafe is in a very different condition from one that did not, even if they look identical.

Ask About the History and the Parts
A used machine is really two purchases: the hardware, and the paper trail that tells you what happened to it.

7. Service records and who rebuilt it
Ask who did the refurbishment and what their qualifications are. Ask for an itemized list of what was replaced, not a summary. Ask how many years the machine ran, in what kind of volume, and whether it came from a cafe, an office or a home. A dealer that rebuilds machines in house should be able to answer all of that in one email. Local support matters too. Bozeman Magazine's 2023 interview with Ghost Town Coffee Roasters noted that their wholesale side includes equipment sales and service, so technicians who know commercial gear do exist in the valley.

8. Parts availability for that brand and model year
An orphaned machine is the worst outcome in this entire category. Before you commit, check that gaskets, valves, boards and elements for that exact model are still made and still stocked in the United States. If you are looking at a refurbished espresso machine from a specialist dealer, you will notice the same well supported names keep appearing. One US dealer's current renewed and used listings run from about $3,799 to $11,999 and include a renewed La Marzocco Linea Classic, a Nuova Simonelli Appia and a WEGA Atlas. That is a short list of nine machines, not a warehouse, which is worth knowing before you plan around it. For context, new commercial machines from the same dealer span roughly $1,995 to $41,500.

What a Refurbished Espresso Machine Should Come With
The last two checks are about the seller rather than the hardware, and they are the ones people skip when they are excited about a price.

9. Warranty and return terms
Get the warranty in writing and read what it actually covers. Parts only, or parts and labor? For how long? Who pays freight if a boiler fails in month three, and is there a return window at all? A dealer standing behind a rebuild will put terms in writing without being pushed. Freight matters more than people expect in Montana, so ask who arranges shipping, whether it comes on a pallet with a liftgate, and what happens if it arrives damaged.

10. What "refurbished" means from that particular seller
Finally, ask the seller to define the word. A refurbished espresso machine from a specialist dealer normally means teardown, new seals, replaced wear parts, a pressure test and a warranty. A private as is sale means you are buying a photograph and a story. Both can be good buys, but they should not carry the same price. If the answer is vague, treat the machine as as is and price your risk accordingly.

Work the list in order and the decision usually makes itself. If your building cannot carry the power and plumbing, no amount of rebuild quality fixes that, and you are better off with a smaller unit you can actually run. If the space is ready and the paper trail is clean, a properly rebuilt commercial machine will pour for years and free up capital for the things your customers will actually notice.

Buying a refurbished espresso machine for a Bozeman cafe? Ten checks on boilers, power, water and warranty to make before you hand over the money.

If you’re like many Bozeman homeowners, then chances are, you have had a go at DIY projects ranging from replacing a light fixture to prepping for a hot tub. Although many electrical projects seem manageable, mistakes can result in a fire or a code violation. Statistics show, for instance, that there are around 51,000 electrical fires in U.S. homes every year, causing around $1.3 billion in property damage. In Bozeman, the city’s Code of Ordinances requires certain electrical alterations and installations to be approved and inspected.

Freedom to Undertake Electrical Work in Bozeman Is Not Absolute
Section 10.0230210 of Bozeman’s Code of Ordinances, for instance, stipulates that while owners may complete wiring work in their own home without a license, they must first obtain a permit. An electric inspector, however, “may refuse to issue a permit to any person who, in the electrical inspector's estimation, is not competent to install the electrical work in accordance with the regulations of this article.” Inspectors may also order homeowners to remove any electrical repairs they have made or disconnect any parts of an installation that may be hazardous. As such, electrical work may involve more than just personal preference for homeowners.

Electrical Tasks Homeowners Can Safely Complete
In Bozeman, as in most other cities across the United States, homeowners are allowed to tackle low-risk, non-invasive tasks such as replacing switch plates or outlet covers, testing GFCI reset buttons, and resetting tripped breakers. What these have in common is that they are all maintenance tasks rather than electrical modifications. However, if a cover were to come off or a bit of wiring were to become exposed, the line from safe DIY work to work that should be overseen by a professional electrician would be crossed.

Electrical Work That is Best Left to the Experts
Electrical work that can pose safety hazards and is best left to experts comprises numerous categories, including panel and service work, such as circuit breaker panel replacements, main service upgrades, adding capacity for modern appliances or HVAC loads, and any work near meters or service entrances. All tasks involving new circuits and rewiring are also for the pros. For instance, if you need to run new circuits for a specific room, rewire an older part of your home, replace unsafe or outdated wiring, or resolve persistent outages or overloaded circuits, it is best to hire an electrician for the job. The same goes for specialty installations (such as hot tub wiring, solar panel installation, and work involving kitchen and laundry appliances) and work in which moisture or outdoor risks are involved (including bathroom and kitchen outlets, garage wiring, exterior outlets, and any project exposed to snow, rain, or damp conditions).

Emergency Warning Scenarios to Watch Out For
Homeowners should be vigilant for signs of electrical emergencies, such as burning smells, sparking outlets, buzzing panels, scorch marks, warm outlets, and flickering lights. If breakers trip repeatedly, you hear crackling or popping sounds, lights dim when you turn on appliances, or you have frequent blown fuses, contact a professional electrician immediately to avoid the risk of electric shock or fire. What’s more, in Bozeman, these types of electrical work usually require compliance with the Code of Ordinances and may require permits and inspections. Leaving these issues unattended or aiming to remedy them oneself may result in damage to appliances, property, or an entire electrical system.

Staying Safe in Bozeman
In Bozeman, regulations generally require a permit before altering existing wiring or wiring a building, and the city also treats multiple projects (including panel work, generators, EV chargers, and most wiring) as permit-requiring work. If you will be hiring an electrician, ensure they are familiar with required regulations and permits, that they have experience performing the specific tasks you need, and that they can offer clear estimates and timelines. Professionals should hold a Montana electrical license and be able to work in accordance with the local code. Finally, they should carry liability insurance and, if they have employees, have workers’ compensation coverage as required by Montana contractor rules.

When it comes to simple tasks like replacing light bulbs, outlet covers, or resetting a tripped breaker, homeowners in Bozeman are usually able are usually permitted to perform these tasks. However, for more important projects such as panel and service work, new circuits, or rewiring, rely on a professional. Ensure they are trusted and recommended, comply with local regulations, and value the safety of their employees.