Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/category/billings/page/18/)
A few days before Christmas, 38 lucky students at McKinley Elementary School found themselves in possession of new bicycles, locks and helmets on Wednesday, compliments of Billings TrailNet. “We build trails around town,” TrailNet event coordinator Kevin Odenthal told a gym full of kids Wednesday afternoon just before the giveaway. “We also want to make sure people have fun.” (more…) Continue Reading →
The Billings City Council will decide Monday night whether to endorse efforts to pass a new kind of statewide local option sales tax—or to postpone a decision until a bill draft lays out more details on the proposal. The council also will be asked to approve a two-page list of priorities that the city will pursue during the 2017 Montana Legislature, one of the priorities being a commitment to support a local option tax of some kind. (more…) Continue Reading →
A few days before a math competition for fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders took place at Big Sky Elementary School, Tom Rupsis was explaining what the prizes would be for the top-scoring students. Rupsis, a Big Sky parent who came up with the idea for the contest last year, said the winning boy and girl in each grade would receive a National Geographic Quadcopter Drone. (more…) Continue Reading →
As I drop down Interstate 90 into the river valley that holds the “Magic City,” I swear: I won’t ever live in Billings, Montana. The sun glints off a spawling refinery that dominates the city’s eastern entrance. A sickly sweet smell smacks my face, making my teeth ache and my stomach curl. And they’re processing sugar beets on the South Side. (more…) Continue Reading →
The day after GE Capital announced what had long looked to be inevitable—that it would be closing down its Billings operations and laying off 60 people—Steve Arveschoug was working on what comes next. Arveschoug is the director of Big Sky Economic Development, the agency that built a 40,000-square-foot “Center of Excellence” for GE Capital in 2009. (more…) Continue Reading →
In annoucing the proposed expansion of the Art House Cinema & Pub during an event at the downtown business Monday night, Matt Blakeslee told about going to see “The Artist” back in 2011. The black-and-white silent movie, which would go on to win seven Oscars, including Best Film, had won high praise from critics and movie-goers for many months before Carmike Cinemas, which then owned every screen in town, finally brought the movie to Billings. (more…) Continue Reading →
The artist stepped back to study the imprint of her hands on the grainy sandstone surface above her head. She was satisfied and added nothing else. The red berry dye reflected her slender hands well. As she had lifted her fingers, she trailed them slightly upward, elongating each finger—reflecting the radiation outward of her personal power. She thought the simplicity elegant. Continue Reading →
One Big Sky Center, a proposed development that would create the tallest building in Montana as the centerpiece of a $165 million project in downtown Billings, won the grudging support of the City Council Monday night. On a 6-2 vote, with two absences and one abstention, the council approved a memorandum of understanding with the project developers, giving them until June 30 to work with city staff and the city’s legal and financial consultants to come up with a final development agreement. (more…) Continue Reading →
The owner of a new downtown coffee shop, facing threats of a boycott over his hate-filled racist and sexist rants on Facebook, apologized Sunday, calling his comments “the biggest mistake I ever made in my life.” “I completely apologize,” Larry Heafner said. “It was the dumbest thing I ever did. … I’m not going to sit and try to excuse my derogatory or negative comments, because it was ridiculous. I do want to say, I’m not racist by no means, and I’m not a woman hater.” Continue Reading →
Randy Sitzman is not one for bragging. Left to his own devices, he probably wouldn’t have gone out looking for publicity when the big news broke last month—that he and two other managers for the First Financial Equity Corp. were buying out the founder of the corporation. (more…) Continue Reading →
