The Montana Beef Council and the Big Sky Country Fair have teamed up in order to bring education, activities, and fun to Bozeman from Wednesday, July 19 through Sunday, July 23. At the Gallatin County Fairgrounds, the Haynes Pavilion will be transformed into the Montana Beef Council Barnyard, where children’s workshops and giveaways will be taking place each day from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m.

Activities include building your own brand, a roping relay, beef bingo, line dancing, protein poetry, pasture pair tag, and an introduction to beef cuts. While workshops are taking place, parents can pick up resources on where to find local beef, recipes, nutrition information, and ideas on what to make for dinner!

Additionally, the Montana Beef Council will be hosting a scavenger hunt using stickers placed throughout the fair. If participants fill out their scavenger hunt cards correctly, they are given the chance to win beef swag and other prizes. Competitors can sign up at the Montana Beef Council Barnyard or by following this link.

“Last year, we brought one pretty exciting activity to the fair in the form of a ninja obstacle course, but this year, we’re bringing a whole host of activities for families to enjoy,” said Anna Sponheim, project manager for the Montana Beef Council. “In order to accomplish our goal of putting more beef on more plates, we have to get outside the barn, which is why we’re bringing the barnyard to Bozeman.”

Amanda Hartman, Big Sky Country State Fair Marketing/Sponsorship Coordinator, said, “We are excited to team up with Montana Beef Council for the all-NEW Barnyard! Offering more agriculture education opportunities at the Big Sky Country State Fair has been a goal of ours for years, and with the help of Montana Beef Council, we are making that dream a reality.”

More details about the upcoming activities at the Montana Beef Council Barnyard and the Big Sky Country State Fair can be found on the Montana Beef Council Facebook page.

Check out more information about the Montana Beef Council throughout the year on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, or by going to www.montanabeefcouncil.org.

As some may know, Bozeman City Commissioner I-Ho Pomeroy has been battling medical issues and absent from recent Commission meetings. On June 23rd, I-Ho underwent brain surgery to remove an aggressive glioblastoma tumor discovered there.
 
I-Ho is beloved by all who meet her. The news of her medical circumstance has been heartbreaking for many, from the Pomeroy family to the Commission, City staff, and the public. Her voice and cheerful presence at our commission meetings are truly missed.
 
Understandably, people have questions. We want to be clear that we place no timeline for Commissioner Pomeroy returning to Commission meetings.  The Bozeman City Charter allows us to excuse absences as we continue to do the work of the Commission. Our primary concern in this situation is for the health of Commissioner Pomeroy and to make things as easy as possible for her and her family during this time.

Commissioner Pomeroy is a rare gem. She has given so much to her community, and we hope you will join us in wishing I-Ho a full recovery.
 
Please keep Commissioner Pomeroy in your thoughts. A GoFundMe has been set up to help with expenses.

Statement from Mayor Cyndy Andrus.

Kyle Suta Teams up with Colombo’s Pizza to Create a Community-Oriented Lounge for All Ages


Bozeman – Bozeman's newest beer and wine lounge is now open on West College Street, just off the northwest corner of the Montana State University campus.

“The Break Room gives our customers a comfortable space to socialize, study, or just take a break and relax on the patio,” says Kyle Suta, Bozeman native and general manager of The Break Room.

The Break Room is brought to the community by Colombo's Pizza & Pasta, and patrons of the Break Room have direct access to Colombo’s Pizza’s game room, Joe’s Fun Zone, which includes classic arcade games such as Skee-Ball and pinball. “Colombo's is a Bozeman institution,” says Suta. “My family and I have been loyal customers since they opened in the mid-1980's, and I couldn't be happier about partnering with them to expand Bozeman’s social offerings.”

Both The Break Room and Colombo’s Pizza & Pasta occupy space in historic Westgate Village. Built in 1957, it is the oldest multi-unit shopping center in the Gallatin Valley and has recently been determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places by the Montana Historical Society. The Bozeman City commission has also recently passed resolution 5484 recognizing the historic significance of the shopping center. The Break Room occupies the space previously used by Gallatin Drug (1957-1974), Bridger Mountain Sports (1976-1984), and the Community Food Coop (1984-1992) among others.

A casual, friendly atmosphere surrounds a fine selection of Montana craft beers, draught wines, and hand-crafted sodas. Their old-fashioned soda fountain is a centerpiece of the bar, providing customers with a glimpse of classic Americana and a robust selection of alcohol-free drinks.
On the menu are several comfort food items, including Wind’s Pasties of Anaconda that are baked in the pizza oven at Colombo’s and served with a gravy made from Guinness beer. Other menu items are also inspired by and cooked with beer, including a chili made with Mexican lager, and a nacho cheese sauce made with wheat beer.

The walls of The Break Room are adorned with fun, colorful and mind-bending murals by Florida-based artist Daniel Barojas (@r5imaging).

The Break Room is open now--11am to 11pm every day of the week at 10011 West College Street in Bozeman. For more information call Kyle Suta or follow @breakroombzn on Instagram.

HELENA - Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks is advising anglers that portions of the Sun and lower Madison rivers will close to all fishing daily from 2 p.m. to midnight, beginning Wednesday, July 12. The restrictions will stay in effect until conditions improve.

The hoot-owl restrictions are issued for:

• Sun River – from the Highway 287 Bridge to the mouth of Muddy Creek.
• Madison River – from Warm Springs Boat Launch to the confluence with the Jefferson River

FWP's drought policy provides for angling restrictions when flows drop below critical levels for fish, when water quality is diminished or when maximum daily water temperatures reach at least 73 degrees for three consecutive days. Water temperatures of 77 degrees or more can be lethal to trout.

Restrictions of this nature are designed to protect fish that become more susceptible to disease and mortality when conditions like this exist. FWP officials said one short-term strategy to address heat-induced stress in Montana's wild trout is to reduce catch-and-release mortality by alerting anglers to fish only in the morning. 

"Limiting fishing to only the cool morning hours can help a lot," said Eric Roberts, FWP’s Fish Management Bureau Chief. “We're trying to minimize any additional stress on wild trout during these mid-summer conditions of high-water temperatures and low flows.”

Anglers can reduce stress on fish at all times of the year by getting fish to net or hand quickly, keep them in the water, and revive them prior to releasing them back to river.  
In addition, anglers can also help reduce stress and mortality for fish by following these practices when catching and releasing fish, though fish mortality may still occur: 

• Fish during the coolest times of day, where permitted. 
• Keep the fish in water as much as possible.  
• Let the fish recover before releasing it. 

If high temperatures and extremely low flows persist, anglers may want to consider fishing areas with less stressful temperatures and conditions, such as larger lakes or reservoirs, or higher elevation waterbodies.

These are the first restrictions imposed this year by FWP, but probably not the last. For the latest waterbody restrictions and closures, click here.

                                                                                            John Peebles, Administrate's CEO

The deal, led by Hambro Perks who provided $3.8 million in the round, will continue to fuel Administrate’s rapid growth and further develop its platform to solve the unique challenges of mature enterprise training teams.

Bozeman, Montana, 11 July 2023 - Administrate, the leading enterprise training operations platform, announced today that it had raised $6.4 million from existing investors Archangels, Mercia, and the Scottish Investment Bank, and that it had welcomed Hambro Perks as a new capital partner. Funds will be deployed to support the company’s rapid growth and continue to meet the needs of its diverse and growing North American enterprise customer base.

The company, which was recently recognized as one of the fastest-growing tech companies in the UK by global tech and advisory firm GP Bullhound, provides a scheduling and logistics platform used by some of the biggest brands in the world to manage their complex global training operations. Customers typically experience an 80% reduction in manual activities after implementing the platform, and its new AI-powered scheduler has experienced accelerated customer demand in the last six months.  Administrate is headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland, with a USA office in Bozeman, Montana.  

The deal was led by Hambro Perks who specialize in supporting high-growth scale-up companies that focus on B2B SaaS.

“Backing Administrate was an easy decision,” said Usman Ali, Partner at Hambro Perks Growth Debt Fund. “Administrate is an innovative and rapidly expanding business that has continued to deliver double-digit growth within its enterprise customers segment in the last couple of years. Their platform is well suited to the needs of large corporations that operate in multiple geographies. We strongly believe that the business has tremendous growth potential and we look forward to seeing the business expand in the coming years.”

Niki McKenzie, Joint Managing Director at Archangels said, “With an impressive roster of customers on their books, this new funding package will allow the team to accelerate growth, particularly stateside, where they have seen significant growth among large multinational corporations. We’re looking forward to working closely with the team on this next exciting chapter of their story.”

“Our team has done an incredible job delivering for our customers,” said John Peebles, CEO of Administrate. “Our capital partners understand the unique opportunity ahead of us, and we’re excited to continue building on our success in a sustainable way. I’m proud of some of the key innovations we’re launching within our platform this year which include our AI-powered scheduler and significant improvements to our headless architecture strategy. These tools within our platform can transform training operations and drive significant ROI for our customers in unprecedented ways.”

About Administrate

Administrate is the premier learning technology platform designed to scale and manage the complexities of enterprise training. Organizations such as Royal Caribbean Group, Siemens Healthineers, and Maersk use the platform to automate manual processes, manage complex training schedules and logistics, and access business intelligence from previously untapped and siloed data. The company was founded in 2012 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and has offices in Bozeman, Montana. Administrate was recognized as a 2022 "Great Place to Work" in both the U.S. and U.K.

About Archangels: 

Founded in 1992, Archangels is a leading business angel syndicate investing in early-stage Scottish life sciences and technology companies. Archangels comprise around 120 members and an eleven-strong board and executive team. There are currently 21 companies within the portfolio.

For further information on Archangels visit www.archangelsonline.com

About Hambro Perks:

Hambro Perks is a London-headquartered international investment firm focused on private investing. It partners with founders and entrepreneurs to support growth businesses at all stages of the investment cycle.

Hambro Perks has specialized and dedicated investment teams, working across a number of funds. In addition to their flagship Venture, EIS, co-investment and Growth Debt funds, Hambro Perks offers a number of specialist differentiated investment strategies, including Hambro Perks Environmental Technology, Special Situations, and Access, which invests in venture secondaries. 

Bozeman, MT—Sweet Pea Festival of the Arts is seeking volunteers for their 46th annual Festival August 4-6, 2023. The Festival, held the first full weekend in August in Bozeman’s Lindley Park, requires hundreds of volunteers. Opportunities include festival set up and tear down, manning admissions gates, the temporary box office, flower show, selling Festival merchandise and assisting with children’s activities. 

Each volunteer shift is three hours in duration. Volunteers completing at least one three-hour shift will receive a special volunteer wristband for free admission to the Festival. For more information or to view and sign up for available volunteer openings, please visit the Festival website at https://sweetpeaafestivalofthearts.volunteerlocal.com/volunteer/

ABOUT SWEET PEA FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS:
The Sweet Pea Festival is a three-day festival of the arts held in Bozeman, Montana, since 1978. Festival dates are always the first full weekend in August with other events, such as Chalk on the Walk starting off the festivities of Sweet Pea Week. The Festival includes everything from music, theatre and dance to children’s activities, an Artist Marketplace with artists from Bozeman and around the country, and adult painting workshops. The Sweet Pea Festival is committed to its mission statement of “promoting and cultivating the arts.”

Hundreds of volunteers run and organize this annual event, a testament to the community’s desire for its ongoing success. All monies raised above what is needed to operate the Festival are given back to the community in the form of grants for the arts, art education, and special projects in the Bozeman area.

HELENA – Nonresident hunters who registered to be placed on the Alternates List can now check their status on MyFWP: myfwp.mt.gov/fwpExtPortal/myDrawResult_input.action. Every year, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks gets several unused nonresident combination licenses (big game, general elk and general deer combination licenses) returned by customers. FWP resells these returned licenses through the Alternate’s List. 

After registration for the list closed on June 30, the list was randomized. The hunter in the uppermost randomized position on the list will be contacted by email to finalize the purchase of the license, and so on until the returned nonresident combo licenses are exhausted. Licenses will start being offered for purchase early August.

MyFWP also allows nonresident hunters to check their position on the list.

The odds of getting a license from these lists vary greatly from year to year. Refunds and issuance may occur at any time after mid-July, but availability of these licenses generally increase between early fall and the opening of general hunting season in late October. 

For more information, visit fwp.mt.gov/hunting/licensedraw/alternatesList.html.

BOZEMAN — Driveways that purify runoff after a rainstorm, walls that cleanse air of exhaust and concrete that self-repairs its cracks — these may sound like fiction, but all are among the science being discussed this week at a meet-up featuring Montana State University researchers.

As part of the annual Montana Biofilm Meeting on July 10-13, MSU scientists specializing in the emerging field of engineered living materials will present on the topic during an all-day workshop on Thursday. The event is expected to draw representatives from 19 companies and agencies, with nearly 100 MSU researchers also attending, including students.

“We think there’s immense potential to functionalize our infrastructure materials so they can clean air and water and contribute other positive benefits,” said Robin Gerlach, a researcher in MSU’s Center for Biofilm Engineering, which organizes and hosts the yearly meet-up. “One of our goals with highlighting this topic this year is to help define and shape the field. It’s exciting.”

The annual meeting typically draws MSU’s industrial collaborators who are grappling with the negative effects of microbes that grow together cooperatively to form slimy mats called biofilm — or companies making products for controlling biofilm, like specialized disinfectants. Biofilm is best known for clogging pipes, forming plaque on teeth and festering in wounds, but the MSU researchers want to harness it for good, Gerlach said.

“We want to explore ways of thinking about biofilm not just as slime, but as a living machine,” said Gerlach, professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering in MSU’s Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering.

Introducing Thursday’s workshop is MSU researcher Chelsea Heveran, whose recent work has included exploring how to incorporate microbes and fungi into building materials that are less energy-intensive and could be used in situations where resources are scarce, such as in disaster relief.

“I think it’s likely in the future that a lot of the materials around us that are now inert will have a living component that performs some function,” said Heveran, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. There’s a groundswell of interest and funding in the field, she noted. “This is an emerging scientific community. We want to spark collaboration and accelerate the progress that’s happening.”

This year’s focus on engineered living materials is an example of how the Center for Biofilm Engineering uses the annual Bozeman meeting to keep its partners from across the country up to date with the cutting-edge science, said Darla Goeres, the center’s industrial coordinator.

“We like to keep things fresh and have sessions that dig into big questions,” said Goeres, research professor in MSU’s chemical and biological engineering department. “Our partnership with industry helps keep our research very relevant and applied. It’s a collaborative process where we solve biofilm challenges together.”

The event is also a valuable opportunity for students, she noted. Four MSU graduate students — Hannah Goemann, Madelyn Mettler, Amit Acharjee and Yagmur Keskin — will present at the meeting, and many undergraduates will display their research at a poster session on Wednesday evening. Throughout, students can interact with company representatives and explore job opportunities.

Other sessions during the three-day event cover topics such as how to monitor and measure biofilm in hard-to-reach areas like inside pipelines and the latest techniques for treating biofilms that can be difficult to control. Companies like Procter & Gamble and Sherwin-Williams are regular attendees, Goeres noted, as is NASA, which is working on taming biofilms in the pipes of its spacecraft.

"The companies and others who come to the meeting are innovative,” Goeres said. “They want to be at the forefront and lead, so for them to come and learn about this emerging field of engineered living materials is a huge opportunity for them."

On July 09, 2023, Gallatin County Dispatch received a call from a pair of hikers, one of which was dehydrated and out of water, on the Ridge Trail between Ross Peak and Sacajawea Peak in the Bridger Mountains.

Gallatin County Sheriff Search and Rescue volunteers from the Valley Section responded to Brackett Creek Trailhead and deployed three teams.  Teams consisted of side by sides, four wheelers, and ground crews.  The hiker had cellphone reception and relayed information via text messages and phone calls.  Gallatin County Sheriff Search and Rescue teams located the dehydrated hiker and provided food and water.  Once the patient regained strength and energy, GCSSAR teams walked the patient to the Ross Pass Trail and then transported by side by side to Brackett Creek Trailhead.

Sheriff Dan Springer would like to remind recreationalists that long hikes can take more time than expected and can be exhausting.  Being prepared with extra food, water, and a communication device can be extremely helpful if your adventures don’t go as expected.

Photo courtesy of Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office.