Good evening.

We're to call the December 3rd, 2025.

Economic development meeting to order.

Present uh Commissioner Walker, Commissioner Shea, Commissioner O'Larry, Commissioner Healy, absent Commissioner O'Neill, Commissioner Mankins, and Willson's and Bill Anderson and Commissioner Anderson.

This time we'll turn it over to Kelly Sullivan from BLDC.

It sounds good.

Good evening, everyone.

I'll just touch on a few things this month.

I didn't know if anyone had questions for me from last month.

We there was no quorum, so I didn't give out a report, but I had left reports for you.

So I, you know, Holler, if you have anything that comes to mind from November.

But uh we met with a company recently that um the principals have Butte ties, and they've got a business in California.

They're interested in maybe citing a small manufacturing facility here at Montana Connections Park.

So that was a pretty cool meeting.

Um really nice family, and they're thinking about Butte, so that's always exciting.

Um we just got notice that we're going to be doing another red carpet tour in January of 2026 for another company that's looking at Butte.

Um this company's also looking at Great Falls, and we've had a few of those lately looking at Butte and Great Falls.

So uh their interest, their interest in Butte is through the Montana Department of Commerce, and there's been a ton of interest in Butte lately.

So we've been fielding a lot of requests for information.

Um it's been really good.

We had our small business Saturday event last Saturday at the Butte Elks.

We had about sixty-five businesses participate and hundreds of shoppers on the streets uptown.

And then at our gift giveaway event at the Elks that afternoon, uh, we had we thought the biggest crowd we've ever had.

So that was really nice to see people getting out and supporting local.

We have quite a few upcoming training sessions at the Thorne Building.

Uh, to talk about growing and stabilizing your workforce, which I think is something a lot of small businesses and larger businesses too can use assistance with.

And then we have going to have beginner cybersecurity for small business on January 27th.

And then we've got a few others coming up in March, April, and May.

And as the calendar marches on, I'll bring information about those to you.

All of our trainings are low cost, occasionally no cost, but they're very affordable based on what you might pay for something similar.

We're working with Montana Tech and Butte Silverbow on an opportunities in rural economies grant application for a feasibility study that could maybe assist tech entrepreneurs in taking the next step with projects and patents.

And one of those has been submitted already.

Three more will go in tomorrow.

And then our airport subcommittee met today.

People that are interested in air service in and out of Butte.

Again, we meet every month.

And we're just always working on trying to get additional flights.

And so we identified some things we think we might go after for 2027.

Really?

I mean, when you think about it, it's almost 26 now.

On the personnel side, uh we lost our loan assistant, Carrie Taylor.

Um she took an opportunity in Helena, and so we're going to be hiring a loan assistant slash administrative assistant.

We'll probably post that job here in a couple of weeks and do interviews at the end of January.

And then our strategic plan, uh, we're just putting the finishing touches on that.

We're going to have a BLDC board retreat in January to go through the plan and talk about action items, maybe that can get our board members involved.

I'll be doing a short presentation to this council in February, and then we'll roll out the plan at our annual dinner in April.

But we'll be getting fully underway in January with the plan.

And let me just I did bring the November report.

Let me just look at that and see if there was anything I wanted to touch on for you.

Um the Apex Accelerator, that's our government contracting division.

Uh, from July 1st through September 30th, they won contracts for the Headwaters region of Southwest Montana in the amount of about 6.4 million dollars.

So they do great work uh connecting businesses with government buyers.

Uh we're working on another federal grant opportunity through the EDA, and that will be the next step from the one I mentioned a few minutes ago that we're working on with Montana Tech.

If we get that grant, then we'll go for a second planning grant, and then we'll go this first one's a feasibility study.

The next one would be a planning grant, the next one would be money that could be used for construction for a project.

Um I do have a local landowner I've talked about, this gentleman before.

He's got quite a bit of acreage down south of Butte, and he's looking for a developer that wants to do housing.

So I've actually now been able to connect him with three different companies that are looking at housing projects in Butte.

And then we welcomed a company through business MT's business attraction team.

They were here a couple weeks ago, and we had a really great time showing them Butte.

Um they were wowed by our historic buildings, our mining history, and they're definitely interested in doing something and they like the downtown core.

Uh parking was a little concerned for them because they'd have quite a few jobs and they don't want to displace any parking, but that's something that we can work through with them easily.

Um so we think we're still on the radar for that.

And then we did welcome our new director of marketing and business recruitment, Veronica Salway.

She started with us.

Uh yeah, Veronica.

Yeah, she's a great lady.

She is, she's a deal.

Yep.

Yeah, she's wonderful.

So we're really excited to have her on our team, and she's hit the ground running and has lots going on.

She's the director of marketing and business recruitment.

Yeah, she's gonna do a great job for us.

She is, yes.

Yeah.

So we got a good one.

I know it did me too.

I'm like, oh, we were lucky to get her.

So she's really good, yes.

Yeah, and she's just jumping right in and she's got lots to learn on the the business recruitment side, but she's going to do a very good job.

Yeah, any questions for me tonight?

Commissioner Walker.

Can you give us an update on the puzzle?

You know, Stephanie was going to text me.

I saw there was she was going to text me the puzzle count, and I don't think I think she forgot.

I saw her this afternoon.

Are we closed?

No, we're not close.

We have quite a few puzzles still to go.

Yeah.

Yeah, we've sold I think we're around 6,000 sold.

And how many do we have to sell before we make money?

Uh 9,000.

Okay.

Yeah.

So we have a little ways to go yet.

And then one other question.

So on the uh airline thing.

So what things do they want to see to come to Butte?

You know, are they?

Well, a lot of times what they want, uh if we're looking at another flight in and out, they'll want a minimum revenue guarantee.

So we'd actually have to, Butte would have to put up some money to get one of those flights.

And it's a it's a substantial amount of money.

Um so we're working on different ways that we might be able to secure funds to help pay for that.

Do they have grants for those?

Things like that.

Uh none that I know of right off my head.

I think if we knew of something we'd be tapping it, but I don't think essential air, right?

Well, and we do have essential air service.

We do have essential air flights now.

We're an essential air service airport.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

So if we want to do something else, we're gonna have to show them the money as they say.

Commissioner Healy.

Um I just had a question, lost my train of thought.

Where am I here?

Might have to come back now.

I just lost my train of thought talking, listening to you guys.

Oh, the upcoming training.

Who who is invited to that?

Is it a good idea?

Anyone can go.

Anyone can go.

So citizens can go.

Yes, okay.

Open to the public.

Open to the public.

Yes, anyone is welcome.

Yeah, we do some good ones.

Yes.

Yeah.

Um, you had um mentioned that there's a lot of interest.

You know, people are calling and checking.

What is the most common thing that they're that they all share that they're interested in that's interesting about butte for them to consider?

Um quality of life, uh affordability.

Uh we still have some land.

I think one thing people have been impressed with at the Department of Commerce is how easy it is to work with our team in Butte.

And just how I guess how we do, you know, we they call them red carpet tours.

We really do roll out the red carpet.

Uh we make sure we've got people there from education and health care, um, any sector that we think they might want to have an interest in to talk about Butte and what we can offer.

And I just think we've done such a good job that that it's being recognized.

I mean, we're a great location because we have the two interstates.

We've got the port of Montana, we've got the rail spurs out there.

We are a really great location.

Anywhere you want to ship something, you can pretty much put it on a train out there and send it somewhere.

Yeah.

One additional question for you going back to the airport uh conversation.

The forgetting the name of the program, the bed tax money.

Uh the TBID.

Is that a possible source for revenue guarantees?

We're talking with them, so yes, possibly.

Yeah.

Possibly.

We hope we hope they'll be able to help us in some fashion.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Any other questions from commissioners?

All right.

If there's nothing else from you, I'd entertain a motion to adjourn.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

We are adjourned.

Thank you.