06/17/2024
“Helena This Week” is reported and written By JoVonne Wagner. Send your Helena news and tips to [email protected].
St. Peter’s Health recently purchased the armory building, 11 N. Main St., and intends to invest about $27 million in the renovation. Credit: SMA Architecture
St. Peter’s Health recently announced its latest expansion, the $8 million purchase of the Arsonal, Armory and Drill Hall and a tentative plan to remodel the historic building.
During a Hometown Helena meeting last week, St. Peter’s CEO, Wade Johnson, presented the hospital’s plans and shared a rendering of what the building will look like after renovations.
“It’s principally driven by the need that we have in our community for more primary care services. We are out of room on our main campus and also our north clinic,” Johnson told Montana Free Press. “In order for us to meet community needs in primary care services, we had to expand somewhere. For many years now we have been considering a west-side location.”
The organization’s expansion of the armory building, 1100 N. Main St., will include space for a pharmacy drive-through, rehabilitation, primary care, a diagnostic imagery laboratory and therapy services, Johnson said.
Renovation costs are estimated to be about $27 million, but reconstruction will not begin until the beginning of next year.
This expansion is just one of several upcoming projects for St. Peter’s. A partnership announced in April between St. Peter’s, Lewis and Clark County Public Health and the Helena Police Department will expand behavioral and crisis intervention services through a mobile response team.
Also in April, St. Peter’s received a $732,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to grow a forensic nursing program. In March, it began construction of a new $5 million nephrology and dialysis wing. It also announced that the organization had leased the Ray Bjork Learning Center from the school district and is renovating the space to provide childcare to its employees.
“I hope that folks understand that we’re really about our community and supporting our community,” Johnson said. “Not about just expanding for the sake of expansion or just expanding to try to increase revenue. This is really intentionally staying focused on our community and meeting the clinical needs and the health needs of our community.”
Public Notice
A resolution to establish a Helena parking advisory board will be presented to the city commission during the next meeting on Monday, June 17, at 6 p.m. at the City-County Building at 316 N. Park Ave. The board’s purpose is to handle communication on parking issues between downtown businesses and the city.
5 Things to Know in Helena
Pedestrians walkin’ here: Last week, city transportation officials requested city commission feedback on designs for potential changes for two pedestrian crossings that would improve safety and access to the Centennial Trail. The locations are Lyndale Avenue and Ewing Street, and North Montana Avenue and Bozeman Street. Three design options were presented for each intersection. The first option for the Lyndale-Ewing location would add overhead signs, and the second would add overhead signs and curb bulb-outs that would shorten the crossing distance by eight feet. The last option would add a center island at the crossing. The first option for the Montana-Bozeman location would add overhead signs and a skewed crossing to avoid blocking a nearby business entrance. The second option is to add a perpendicular crossing, shortening the distance by eight feet and adding overhead signs. The last option would add a middle island for pedestrian refuge. Commissioners had a preference for the curb bulb-outs and the skewed crossing. City staff said that changes won’t occur until next year.
Filming at the Capitol: Last week, people may have noticed white tents, trailers and a law enforcement presence at the state Capitol. According to Capitol staff, the television series “Yellowstone” was being filmed last Monday and Tuesday. Filming took place inside the building on the second and third floors as well as outside on the Flag Plaza.
Reptile Expo: The Big Sky Reptile Expo will be in Helena on Saturday, June 22, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Sunday, June 23, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Lewis and Clark Fairgrounds exhibit hall. Tickets are required, starting at $10 for adults and $5 for children ages 5 to 10. VIP tickets are also available. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit the expo’s website.
Yoga for a cause: Eclipse Community Yoga teachers and other local instructors will host a community yoga event at Memorial Park on Thursday, June 20, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tickets are not required, but a donation of $10 is encouraged. All proceeds will be donated to the United Way of Lewis and Clark Area. For more information on the event, visit the Eclipse Community Yoga website or email the organization at [email protected].
Juneteenth in Helena: Local organizations will host several events throughout the upcoming week to recognize Juneteenth, a federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.
- Wednesday, June 19, the summer concert series Alive at Five will hold its kickoff show at Womens Park, 500 Fuller Ave., featuring R&B performers The Good, The Bad and the Blues. The event begins at 5 p.m.
- Thursday, June 20, the city of Helena will host a free community feed at the Civic Center, 340 Neill Ave., from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
- Friday, June 21, the Holter Museum of Art, 12 E. Lawrence St., will waive its entry fees. The exhibit will feature art from area students and artists themed around the quote, “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.” The show is from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
- Saturday, June 22, The Montana Historical Society, along with the Last Chance Tour Train, will lead downtown tours that highlight Helena’s Black history.
For more information about these events or additional Junteenth happenings, visit the Juneteenth Planning Committee’s webpage.
3 Questions For
Over the past several months, business owners, employees, residents and property owners have voiced their concerns about parking downtown. The Business Improvement District has facilitated conversations between stakeholders, the city’s transportation services department and the city manager about ways to address the problems. In a meeting last week, transportation staff shared some solutions with commissioners. BID Director Megan Helton spoke with MTFP about those solutions and the future plans for downtown parking. Her comments have been edited for length and clarity.
MTFP: What’s the background on the downtown parking issues?
Helton: Earlier this year, we had a couple of meetings to pull together local business owners, members of the public and representatives from the city to talk about some of the issues that have been identified around parking downtown. Some of those issues include the cost of permits, the ease of parking downtown for visitors and other issues around when the window is open that you can pay your ticket, things like that.
So the BID pulled together a small working group and identified a couple of issues that we wanted to work on and a couple of suggested solutions. When we went back to the city with those proposals, it became apparent that really the best way to deal with this on a long-term basis and develop, or redevelop, a parking advisory board that would work with the city parking department.
MTFP: What are the more immediate parking solutions?
Helton: We’ve got some time before that parking advisory board is created. So in that gap, the parking department had a couple of things that they needed to make decisions on. And in a really wonderful step of good faith between the downtown community and the parking department, they came to the BID to bounce a couple of ideas off of us and to get our support on specifically replacing the arms at the garages that let you in and out with kiosks and then putting all of downtown on one kiosk zone and at one hourly pay rate.
We thought that was really great stuff for our two organizations to work together in lieu of having this. We were really excited to see that the parking department was reaching out for our support and including us in this. It really feels like relationships have been developed through this process that are going to be beneficial for downtown as a whole to be able to solve issues as they arise and to be creative in how we address parking downtown.
MTFP: Can you share some details about the proposed parking advisory board?
Helton: The parking board voting members include one representative from the BID board, one representative who is a property owner within the BID but is not on the BID board. One downtown business representative citizen at large. One person who lives in a residential parking permit property. The last member of that board will be a representative from parking enforcement, but that person is a non-voting member. My understanding is that once the commission fully approves it, the application to join the board will go live on the city’s website where the rest of the city board applications live. People who fit into the categories that I just went through are able to apply and then they will go through the approval process with the mayor and the commission.
Might Be Fun
A cup of mud and a slurp of dirt: The Holter Museum of Art, 12 E. Lawrence St., will host a pottery class on Tuesday, June 18, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The class will focus on creating a teapot and teacup set and will be taught by artist Josh Bashioum. Participants must register, and the fee is $67 for Holter members and $57 for non-members. To sign up, visit the museum’s website.
Helena History
