CARDWELL – Wildlife health staff with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks recently detected chronic wasting disease in a white-tailed deer buck that was harvested by a hunter in hunting district 311.  

The deer was harvested about 1 mile northeast of Cardwell on the south side of Interstate 90. This marks the first CWD detection in hunting district 311. However, the detection site was previously part of hunting district 333 but was added to hunting district 311 during FWP’s biennial season setting process last year. 

CWD has been detected in hunting district 333 previously. The recent detection near Cardwell is a moderate expansion of the disease’s known distribution among white-tailed deer within the Jefferson River watershed.  

CWD is a contagious neurological disease that infects deer, elk and moose. It is always fatal, and there is no known cure. It was first detected in Montana’s wild herds in 2017. The disease is known to exist in other parts of southwest Montana, including the Paradise, Gallatin and Ruby valleys, as well as in other areas of the state.  

FWP has conducted rotating surveillance for CWD throughout the state for several years. Hunting district 311 is within this year's priority surveillance area.  

Hunters play a significant role in CWD management by providing test samples from harvested animals. FWP has provided resources to help hunters collect and submit samples for testing on their own. These resources and others can be found at fwp.mt.gov/cwd. 

CWD is not known to infect humans. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that people not eat meat from infected animals and have their harvested animals tested before eating them if they were taken from an area where CWD is known to exist. For more information on CDC recommendations, please visit go.usa.gov/xAcnc. 

The New Gallatin Crossing Signs Intermountain Healthcare as Anchor Tenant 

BOZEMAN  – Gallatin Valley Mall in Bozeman MT is undergoing a $50+ million, multi-phase redevelopment and will now be known as Gallatin Crossing. This redevelopment is a total transformation from Bozeman’s storied and traditional shopping mall to a modern, mixed-use center that houses high-end retail, entertainment, medical and upscale grocery offerings. The first phase of the extensive physical changes, as well as the broad and diverse new slate of premium tenants, are expected to be completed in the next year. The project is being led by Billings-based owner Corning Companies, Situs Realty Group, and development partners Boston-based Grossman Development Group and Boston Realty Advisors.  

The first phase of this property’s transformation into Gallatin Crossing, which began in September 2022, includes demolishing a significant portion of the enclosed mall to make room for modern medical services and new retail experiences. Significant improvements to the entire property are projected for the next phase of the redevelopment including mall façade upgrades, parking, landscaping, wayfinding signage and lighting - all planned to begin construction in Spring 2023.  

“As Bozeman experiences unprecedented growth, Gallatin Crossing is evolving to maintain its position as the area’s premier destination for both essential and discretionary retail,” said Steve Corning, CEO of Billings-based Corning Companies. “Adding the medical use creates more convenience for patients who can fulfill many essential needs in one location. Not only is Gallatin Crossing the geographic center of Bozeman, but with these new upgrades, it will be the comprehensive lifestyle center in the market.” 

The major components of this first phase of redevelopment are the addition of a new, Medical Pavilion, and Montana’s first Whole Foods Market. The 45,000 SF Medical Pavilion brings together two of the region’s most established healthcare entities, SCL Health, now Intermountain Healthcare, and Ortho Montana PSC. The Medical Pavilion intends to open in 2023 and create great synergies for the new, mixed-use development.  

 
“Gallatin Crossing is at the heart of one of the country’s most exciting destinations, catering to a growing permanent resident base alongside a booming tourist and part-time visitor audience,” said Jeremy Grossman, Principal of Grossman Development Group. “National brands are now competing for access to this customer base and we expect to draw a wide range of popular concepts to feed the new demand for elevated retail and services.” 

 
About Corning Companies 
Corning Companies, formed by CEO Steve Corning, began developing commercial, light industrial, healthcare and multi-family real estate in 1979. With a primary focus on power centers and regional center development, Corning Companies owns, manages, and has developed over 1,300,000 square feet of retail, office, light industrial, healthcare, and multi-family properties throughout Montana. In 2018, Lilly Corning Thompson joined the team, which is responsible for all phases of development including site acquisition, pre-development activities, capital formation, marketing and leasing, design and construction management. For more information, visit www.corningcompanies.com. 

 
About Grossman Development Group  
Grossman Development Group, LLC (GDG) specializes in retail and mixed-use development, redevelopment and acquisition. GDG’s expanding portfolio throughout New England and beyond is internally leased, managed and (re)developed by an experienced team of industry leaders. Led by industry veterans Howard Grossman and Jeremy Grossman, the firm is well-known for retail excellence and community engagement. For more information, please visit www.grossmanre.com. 

BOZEMAN – Beginning in the fall of 2023, aspiring nursing students from Montana high schools will be guaranteed admission into the nursing bachelor’s degree program in the Mark and Robyn Jones College of Nursing at Montana State University.

In an update to its admissions system last month, the college announced the Montana Nursing Direct Entry Program. Montana high school students expecting to graduate in the spring of 2023 — and beyond — can apply for admission to the college of nursing under the new standards. Graduates of Montana high schools who apply to the college's professional program will receive guaranteed admission, provided they remain in good standing as MSU students and maintain a GPA of 3.0 or greater in their prerequisite coursework.

“Nursing is typically a gated program, so normally students start as a pre-nursing student and then apply for admission and placement into the nursing program,” said Susan Raph, associate dean for academic affairs for the nursing college. “We wanted to give Montana high school graduates who want to become nurses assured admission into our program.”

The intent behind the change is to give Montana residents, many of whom have aspired to attend Montana State, greater peace of mind in pursuing a bachelor’s degree in nursing at MSU, and to streamline the path for them to stay in their home state to practice once they graduate.

“Montana needs nurses, and we know that many of our students, because they grew up here, want to live in and serve Montana,” said Raph. “It’s a win-win for everybody.”

The requirements for all students accepted into the nursing program remain unchanged. After two years of prerequisite coursework, all students in the MSU Bachelor of Science in Nursing complete the same curriculum over their remaining four semesters. All upperclassmen are placed at one of MSU’s five nursing campuses in Billings, Bozeman, Great Falls, Kalispell and Missoula, based on their personal preference and the capacity at each campus. Receiving guaranteed admission will not influence where students are placed for their junior and senior years.

“Montana State University’s Mark and Robyn Jones College of Nursing is a statewide program with the goal of serving Montana. We have a distributed campus model which allows us to utilize the various clinical learning opportunities in Montana while employing a high-quality standardized curriculum to educate Bobcat nurses,” said Sarah Shannon, dean of the college.  “Montana, like the nation, is facing a nursing shortage, but we also have an advantage. Montana’s strong public schools mean that we have many young people interested in a career in nursing. The MSU Mark and Robyn Jones College of Nursing is excited to give these high school graduates a guaranteed future as a Bobcat nurse.”      

The aim of the Montana Nursing Direct Entry Program is to continue to meet the growing needs in Montana and the U.S. for well trained and prepared nurses, said Raph. MSU graduates already make up more than half of the state’s new nurses each year.

“Most of our students have job offers before they even finish their degree,” Raph said. “They know where they’re going and what they’re going to do, and we want to continue to fulfill their dreams and meet Montana’s needs.”

Founded in 1937, Montana State University’s Mark and Robyn Jones College of Nursing offers bachelor’s, accelerated bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral-level nursing education to produce nurses, nurse leaders, nurse educators and nurse practitioners for Montana. The college of nursing has campus locations in Bozeman, Billings, Great Falls, Kalispell and Missoula. Montana State University is the largest producer of registered nurses in Montana and is the sole provider of doctoral nurse practitioner education in the state. More information is available at montana.edu/nursing.  

There are only a few more weeks of open burning left in the season in Gallatin County.

Open burning in Gallatin County ends on November 30, and will reopen on March 1.

If you still have burning projects you need to get done before the end of the month, remember that burn permits are required. Permits can be obtained online at www.gallatinburnpermits.com or in person at the following locations:

• Bozeman Fire Department – 901 N. Rouse Ave., Bozeman
• Central Valley Fire District – 215 Wings Way, Belgrade
• Gallatin County Treasurer’s Office – 311 W. Main St., room 103, Bozeman
• Three Forks Community Library – 607 N. Main St., Three Forks

Permits can be activated online or by calling 1-888-540-8131.

More information on what you can and cannot burn, and the current open burning status in your fire district, can be found here.

The Montana Department of Environmental Quality can permit burning during the winter depending on conditions. Those wishing to conduct a burning project from Dec. 1 to Feb. 28 must apply and request a Burner Identification Number at least two weeks ahead of time. The morning you wish to burn, you must then contact the DEQ meteorologist to receive approval to burn. If approval is granted, you then must activate a purchased Gallatin County DEQ Notification permit at www.gallatinburnpermits.com.

More information on winter burning can be found here.

Gallatin County Extension is hosting a free forest debris pile burning practicum on Friday, Nov. 18. To learn more about the course and to register, visit here.

Music is an element that restaurants do not always take into account. However, this makes us wonder "is it really necessary?". Well, the reality is that sound is directly related to improving the customer experience.

Music can completely change the ambiance of your establishment and provide a unique and enjoyable environment. If you want to know more about the influence of music in restaurants, read on. Here we explain everything you need to know and more. 

Music as a sensory stimulus

A pleasant melody is the best way to stimulate the sense of hearing. Music has the ability to influence the brain and affect our emotions and behaviors. A song can help us to activate our creativity or release accumulated stress. 

The choice of music in a restaurant is very important to offer a pleasant evening to customers. This can be associated with sensory marketing, where the five senses are stimulated to enhance the user experience.

It has been proven that music and visual stimuli are the main factors in enhancing the customer experience. People often use sites like nicelocal to find a restaurant with pleasant music and ambiance. In Bozeman, Bozeman Magazine has the best directory of area restaurants including those with live music.

Emotional connection between music and food

We already saw how music has the ability to stimulate us in different ways. But what is the connection between a good tune and food? The answer is that songs have the ability to stimulate our emotional memory.

A song can awaken nostalgic feelings by reminding us of moments of happiness or strong emotions that we unconsciously associate with food. 

A good dish can remind you of grandma's recipes. While sound can bring back memories of the music your mother listened to while cooking. 

Therefore, music and food have the power to transport us to another era. This makes people feel more connected to the place. 

Music as a motivational tool

Music can be a great motivational tool. Many people listen to their favorite songs while cleaning or cooking. For that reason, a good musical environment can make customers feel motivated to enter your place and stay.

It is worth mentioning that music not only influences customers, but also employees. Creating a pleasant working environment greatly increases the quality of service. Try to find a playlist with inspirational songs.

How to choose the right music for your restaurant?

Reading all the above it is clear that music is the ideal ingredient to provide a greater attraction in restaurants. Although it is important to know how to choose the perfect type of songs to set the mood. Here we explain what you should take into account to achieve it: 

The type of restaurant
The first thing to do is to think about the essence of your restaurant. Look at the look of the place and think about the atmosphere you want to create with the melody. Remember that music has the ability to transform the image you want to convey to your customers.

If you have a specific theme it is easier, for example, Chinese, Mexican or traditional food. You can use music from the place or similar to set the mood. Remember that the songs should be varied, you can achieve this by finding out about types of music that fit with your place.

The customers
It is very important to take into account the personality, style and age of your target audience. Obviously you can't please everyone, but you can find the music that fits directly with your target.

If you have a young audience, they will have fun listening to the songs of the moment, without confusing you with a discotheque. On the other hand, if you have much older customers, it will be better to opt for classics that take them to other times.

The idea is to think about what kind of music they would expect to find in your restaurant. To get a better idea you can ask your most trusted customers directly.

Schedule
When choosing a playlist for your restaurant, always take into account the schedule. You can look at it this way: playing loud music in the morning hours may not be the best alternative. At this time customers usually prefer a relaxing type of music, such as jazz.

What should you avoid?

If you want to add a musical touch to your establishment there are a few things you should avoid doing. First of all, don't set the volume too high. It can be annoying and prevent customers from conversing at ease.

On the other hand, you should not play a wide variety of music, make sure that all the songs keep a similar style. Finally, to avoid playing the radio, it is not pleasant to listen to the advertising and announcements of the stations.

HRDC has been forced to delay opening the doors of its Warming Center until more employees are hired and trained.
 
LIVINGSTON, MT — HRDC is actively seeking applicants for several positions at its Livingston location emergency shelter. Due to a shortage in staff, community members in need of a warm safe place to stay must either continue sleeping outdoors or make their way to Bozeman to stay at HRDC’s Warming Center on Wheat Drive.

 
Jenna Huey, HRDC’s Emergency Shelter Services Manager, explained the challenges she has faced in recruiting staff for both of the shelters she oversees for HRDC, “We have experienced staffing shortages since Covid occurred. This year has been especially difficult for us. We were forced to close our Day Center in Bozeman for six weeks and now we are unable to open our  Livingston shelter on November 1st as originally planned. It is distressing to know there are people out there who need a place to stay, and we can’t provide it to them, especially with the change in weather we are experiencing.”

 
Huey has been working closely with the hiring team at HRDC to recruit for the open positions using both traditional and non-traditional methods for more than two months but has had little luck in finding qualified candidates to work at its Livingston location. Huey is hopeful that will change with the interviews she currently has scheduled; however, she wants the Park County community to know that the shelter is in need of more applicants.

 
“We know our luck is running short with the mild fall temperatures we’ve enjoyed this year. It is imperative that we get our shelter open in Livingston as soon as possible. Last year, during the coldest month of the year, we provided overnight accommodations to 12 people per night in Livingston. That number grew closer to 20 on many nights. We simply can’t abide having preventable tragedies like severe frostbite, hypothermia, and even death occur in our community. We know that many of our neighbors would want to pitch in, including applying for a position, if they knew of the staffing challenges we are having right now,” said Brian Guyer, HRDC’s Director of Housing.

 
More information about HRDC and the Livingston Warming Center can be found at https://thehrdc.org/housing/homeless-services/emergency-shelter/livingston-shelter/ and open job postings at the Livingston shelter can be found at https://hrdc.bamboohr.com/jobs/view.php?id=487&source=thehrdc.
 
 
HRDC is a private, not-for-profit Community Action Agency focused on building a better community through nearly 50 different initiatives aimed at combating poverty in southwestern Montana.
 

HRDC’s Livingston Warming Center Facts, 2021-2022 Winter Season:

★ The Livingston Warming Center has a capacity for 20 guests seeking shelter

Intersections can be one of the most dangerous areas of any roadway. Around 40% of accidents in the U.S. each year occur at intersections. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says more than two million crashes at intersections annually. So what is it that makes intersections so dangerous and too-often deadly?

Understanding Intersections

Intersections are needed to connect people who are driving, biking, and walking from one place to another. An intersection is where a road intersects, creating crossing paths. Intersections can also become points of conflict, where many crashes occur. 

At an intersection, roads or streets are coming together, and there’s a lot of congestion, signage, distracted drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians, all converging in one place to create a risky situation. 

The NHTSA said that almost 96% of crashes at intersections are preventable, and the cause is frequently reported as driver error. 

When drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists are at an intersection, they need to be focused at a high level. Everyone who’s in an intersection has to process a lot of things all at the same time, including who’s got the right-of-way, how fast oncoming traffic is coming, whether there are pedestrians at crosswalks, and if there are cyclists at the side of the road or in bike lanes. You also have to be cognizant of cars that are making left turns. 

There are three main tasks that are required when driving. The first is control, meaning the operation of your vehicle, and the second is guidance which refers to interaction with other vehicles. The third is navigation, meaning choosing a right to get from one point to the other. All of these tasks mean you need to process a lot of information. If you’re driving and you’re overwhelmed with information, then it can be especially dangerous to you. 

Some of the specific reasons that intersections are dangerous include:
• Distracted driving
• Making false assumptions about what other drivers are going to do next
• Engaging in illegal maneuvers
• Misjudgment of someone else’s speed or the amount of gap you have
• Aggressive driving
• Speeding
• Turning when views are obstructed

Because of how intersections are designed and work, a lot of intersection accidents are side-impact collisions. Side-impact collisions are also called T-bone crashes or broadside accidents. Side-impact injuries can be severe, even with airbags, since the sides of a vehicle don’t provide a lot of protection. 

Injuries Stemming from Intersection Accidents

If you’re in an accident at an intersection, the injuries can be severe, depending on the impact and specifics of the situation. Injuries can include:
• Fractures and broken bones
• Neck injuries
• Back and spinal cord injuries
• Paralysis
• Loss of limbs
• Traumatic brain injuries
• Soft tissue injuries
• Internal organ damage 

Avoiding Intersection Accidents

The best thing to do when recognizing the risk of intersections is to try and avoid putting yourself at an even greater level of danger than what needs to be the case. You can’t control other drivers, but you can control your own behaviors behind the wheel. 

To reduce your risk of being involved in an accident at an intersection, remember the following tips:

• Be aware of your surroundings. This is important any time you’re driving, but with so many factors coming together at an intersection, it’s especially important that you’re aware here. Watch all the drivers and other people around you. There are intersections where you might not have full visibility in every direction so be hypervigilant. 
• Don’t speed through an intersection. There are often surprises at intersections, even when you try your best to anticipate what other drivers are going to do. More than 8% of intersection crashes are estimated to stem from inaccurate assumptions about the actions of another driver. If you’re speeding, you don’t have time to adjust to an unexpected move by someone else. If the light’s turned yellow, don’t try to speed and get through it. 
• Maintain a safe distance. This is always a good rule of thumb, especially at an intersection. Don’t follow any vehicle in front of you too closely because this way, you’re being proactive about safety if there were to be a crash in front of you. When you have extra space, it also gives you a buffer in case someone pulls out in front of you. 
• Use your signal. This is the best way to let other drivers know what your intentions are. 

Finally, be careful as you enter intersections. This is one of the most important reminders for navigating them. The most dangerous time you can enter an intersection is when the light is yellow, or it’s just turned green. People are trying to beat the light when it’s yellow, and when it’s green, even if you have the right-of-way, you want to assume there’s another driver in the intersection. 

Big Sky – Elevate Big Sky is announcing a request for proposals related to resident workforce and single-family housing initiatives in Big Sky, Montana. Proposals will be accepted from December 1, 2022 - December 30, 2022. The goal is to increase the housing inventory for the resident workforce based on identified needs by leveraging resources, organizations, partnerships and plans unique to the Big Sky community.

Successful projects will:

• Demonstrate community need in the form of increasing the inventory of single-family homes (for long-term rent or home ownership) for the resident workforce
• Address affordability of buying or renting single-family homes in the Big Sky Resort Area District (BSRAD) for the resident workforce
• Demonstrate a partnership with a nonprofit entity(s); multi-stakeholder commitment
• Target long-term livability with single-family housing for rent or home ownership
• Include deed restrictions that guarantee accessible, long-term single-family housing for the resident workforce in perpetuity

 
In 2022 Elevate Big Sky was launched as a community-led effort to identify and support sustainable solutions for the most pressing issues facing Big Sky today: livability, behavioral health, and the environment. This collaborative impact funding framework was created in response to the Our Big Sky Community Vision and Strategy. “We have a great sense of community. Even with the current challenges we are facing, Big Sky is a phenomenal community, and we band together when people are in need,” said John Seelye, Elevate Big Sky Committee Member.

 
Project proposals will be reviewed starting in early 2023 and efforts to coordinate with existing funding cycles of Community Foundations and BSRAD are underway. The lead organization for any submitted proposal must be a 501(c)3 nonprofit and the proposal application must list all public/private stakeholders and implementation plan/timeline. “We are at a critical juncture in Big Sky where the pressures are exceeding what the community can provide,” said Ciara Wolfe, YCCF’s Vice President for Philanthropy. “Instead of letting outside pressures steer the direction of the community we love, we are strategically partnering to develop community infrastructure necessary to maintain both the quality of life and culture that all of us fell in love with.”