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9/12/2025
“Missoula This Week” is reported and written By Katie Fairbanks. Send your Missoula news and tips to kfairbanks@montanafreepress.org.
Mayor, other incumbents move on to November general election
The municipal primary election on Tuesday narrowed the field in the race for mayor and three city council seats, with all incumbents making it through to the November general election, according to unofficial results.
In the race for her first full term, Mayor Andrea Davis will face Shawn Knopp in the general election. Davis led with 66% of the votes, or 12,312, to Knopp’s 26.5%, or 4,930. Brandi Atanasoff received 1,042 votes. Davis was elected in 2023 to complete former Mayor John Engen’s term after he died in 2022. Knopp, who works for Montana Glass, ran for mayor in 2021 and 2023 but lost in the primary. Atanasoff, a public relations consultant, also ran for mayor in 2023.
Justin Ponton and Rebecca Dawson will advance to the general election in the race for Sierra Farmer’s Ward 2 seat. Farmer did not seek reelection. Ponton received 31.5% of the vote, and Dawson received 18.7%. Hayden Cook received 17.5% of the votes, Tim Garrison 13.8% and Michele Whitmire 12%.
In November, Ward 3 incumbent Daniel Carlino will face former Ward 1 Council Member Jennifer Savage, who moved to the area this year. Last week, Savage vacated her Ward 1 seat to comply with election laws. Savage led with 47.8%, or 1,711 votes, and Carlino received 40.4%, or 1,447 votes. Three other candidates, David Knudson, Jon Vivas and Nathan Coyan, received 363 votes total.
Sandra Vasecka and Sean McCoy are heading to a rematch for Vasecka’s Ward 6 seat. McCoy, a farmer and planning board member, led with 55%, or 1,321 votes, and Vasecka received 32% or 770 votes. Velda “Lynette” Jonessian received 170 votes. Vasecka is running to finish her term after being appointed following a tie with McCoy in 2023.
Voters citywide weighed in on the race for mayor, while only ward residents could vote for their council members. The voter turnout was 32.25%, well below the 46.43% ballot return rate in the 2023 municipal primary. Missoula County Election Administrator Bradley Seaman said his office always hopes to see higher turnout but was glad to see nearly 5,000 ballots turned in on Election Day.
“It feels great because we’re making sure voters get that opportunity to turn in those ballots, and they took us up on it,” he said.
Results are unofficial until the canvass on Sept. 18.
The races for Ward 1, Ward 4, Ward 5 and Ward 6 seats had fewer than three candidates and advanced to the general election. Elizabeth “Betsy” Craske and Lucas Moody will compete for Savage’s Ward 1 seat. Ward 4 incumbent Mike Nugent will face challenger David Quattrocchi. Ward 5 Council Member Stacie Anderson was unchallenged. Ward 6’s Kirsten Jordan will face challenger Chris Foster.
The city council will begin the process to fill Savage’s vacant Ward 1 seat next week. The council will interview and appoint a Ward 1 resident to fill the vacancy, according to city rules.
Following Up
As of early next week, 60 people will be housed as part of the city’s housing sprint tied to the closure of the Johnson Street homeless shelter, according to city officials. Last week, the city was awarded about $1.1 million in opioid settlement funding grants over the next two years to help those people and others retain housing.
“The focus of these awards is housing retention case management by helping newly housed residents address barriers and stay stably housed,” Mayor Andrea Davis said in an emailed statement. “This means pairing case managers, peer supports and connections to treatment with housing-focused services so that people are not only housed but are supported in keeping that housing long-term.”
Missoula’s regional opioid abatement board awarded the city $250,000 in one-time funding for the housing sprint. Davis said the money will be managed by the city rather than through the United Way of Missoula County, which administered the housing sprint fund. The city will also receive $546,890 in 2026 and $309,234 in 2027 for its “Pathways to Stability” program to help city staff shift to a housing-focused model, work with landlords and create a housing retention case management program, according to the city’s application.
The grant applications were submitted in late April or early May, and some costs outlined in the sprint application are no longer relevant, said Montana James, the city’s deputy director of community development, in an email.
“However, given the timing of the award we do anticipate the one-time funds will be used specifically to support residents housed through the Johnson Street sprint with housing retention,” she said.
The city closed the Johnson Street shelter Sept. 2 after a five-month phased closure and the sprint effort to house as many residents as possible. As part of the sprint, city staff, service providers and volunteers held 41 “office hours” sessions at the shelter and worked with 132 people, Davis wrote in a Sept. 4 update.
Of the 55 people who had secured permanent housing as of Sept. 4, 50 were staying at the shelter and 36 received housing sprint funds, according to the city. More than half, 31, secured a rental with no ongoing subsidy, 10 received a rental subsidy, 10 moved in with family or friends, two people were placed in long-term care or a nursing home and two people moved into group or transitional housing, Davis wrote. Another five people had move-in dates between Sept. 2 and Sept. 15, bringing the total to 60.
Five people secured temporary housing, which included staying with family or friends, short-term residential substance use treatment or moving into a group home. Seven people previously staying at the shelter found permanent housing outside of the sprint.
As of Sept. 4, $164,148 of the housing sprint fund had been spent on various costs including rent, deposits, moving costs, rent or utility debt and application fees, Davis wrote. The city had raised about $220,780 as of Sept. 2, according to the United Way.
Between April 1 and Sept. 2, 48% of all permanent housing placements connected to Missoula’s coordinated entry system were secured or assisted by the housing sprint, Davis wrote. Housing providers and other organizations use the coordinated entry system to place homeless people into housing programs and connect them to other resources.
The housing sprint led to a noticeable increase in the total number of permanent housing placements through coordinated entry, said Sam Hilliard, a coordinated entry specialist with the city. From April through August, placements averaged 23 per month, compared to 13 per month during the same period in 2024, 17 per month in 2023 and 12 per month in 2022, she said.
By the Numbers
The number of households on the waiting list for housing vouchers administered by the Missoula Housing Authority, Sam Oliver, the agency’s executive director, told the Missoula City Council on Wednesday. The housing authority has more than 1,100 vouchers across several programs, including specific vouchers for veterans, foster youth and disabled individuals, Oliver said.
After a significant jump in rents in 2020 through 2023, the voucher limits didn’t come close to matching market rate rents, Oliver said. Only about 50% of households that received vouchers could find a rental they could afford because of the mismatch, he said. Following a rent reevaluation study, HUD approved an increase to Montana’s voucher payment standards that went into effect July 1, 2025, according to the Montana Department of Commerce. That change has helped more households that receive vouchers fund affordable rentals, Oliver said.
Of the Missoula Housing Authority’s 1,042 housing choice vouchers, about 89%, or 928, are in use right now, Oliver said. All 66 of the vouchers for disabled individuals are in use, while 71% of vouchers for veterans are in use, largely due to staffing shortages at the Veterans Affairs office that refers people to the program, he said.
About 94% of the housing authority’s 1,139 affordable units are occupied, Oliver said. The organization is looking to increase that by creating a “turn team” to more quickly get open units ready for new renters, he said. Earlier this year, the housing authority discontinued its waiting list for the properties, which previously numbered 3,870 households, to help speed up the application process, Oliver said.
Public Notice
The Missoula City Council Wednesday will hear the appeal of the Historic Preservation Commission’s March decision to deny the demolition permit for the Old Post Hospital at Fort Missoula. In 2023, the developers and owners of the site proposed building townhomes and commercial buildings adjacent to the hospital and using the revenue to rehabilitate the historic building, the Missoulian previously reported. The commission denied that permit, and the city council upheld the decision. Last year, the developers applied for a demolition permit, and staff recommended approval, given the costs of restoring the building. In their March denial, commission members cited city code that says property owners cannot demolish a historic building because they neglected the structure. The developers argued there was no proof the building was further damaged since they bought it in 2018.
The meeting was originally scheduled for mid-July but was postponed because of an administrative error that led to some neighbors not receiving an official notice of the hearing. The public can attend the 11 a.m. meeting at the City Council chambers at 140 W. Pine St. or online via Microsoft Teams.
The Missoula Redevelopment Agency is holding a workshop on a proposed redevelopment concept for the property north of Montana Rail Link Park Tuesday, Sept. 16. Design firm GGLO based the concept, which calls for up to 250 housing units, commercial space, a park and trails, on resident feedback. The eight-acre, city-owned property includes the former Johnson Street homeless shelter, which closed Sept. 2. After the planning process, the city will find a private developer for the site, according to a city press release. The open house is Tuesday from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at Stockman Bank, 3615 Brooks St. Residents can also fill out an online survey.
5 Things to Know in Missoula
The Missoula City Council on Wednesday approved a resolution calling for transparency in the U.S. Forest Service reorganization and supporting the presence of federal employees in Missoula County. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the Forest Service reorganization, including the phasing out of the nine regional offices, in a July memo. The Region 1 Headquarters is located in Missoula, along with the Forest Service Fire Sciences Lab and Forest Products Lab, which would not be moved, according to the memo. Carolyn Upton, the retired Lolo National Forest supervisor, told the city council the memo lacks details and does not explain the rationale for the proposed changes. The city’s resolution states that Missoula County had about 1,500 federal employees at the end of 2024 and that a reduction would affect the local economy and community. The resolution encourages the governor and congressional delegation to engage with the process, advocate for a local federal employee presence that meets Montana’s needs and share information with state and local governments. Council Member Sandra Vasecka said while she wanted to support the resolution, she opposed language that “seems to be about wage preservation and reinforcing dependency on the federal government.” In August, the Missoula County commissioners sent a letter asking the USDA to consider keeping the regional office structure.
The Missoula County Public Schools board Tuesday approved wage increases for teachers as part of the 2025-2027 bargaining agreement with the Missoula Education Association. The increases were built into the budgets approved late last month. The agreement includes a $2,100 increase to each salary step, a $25 increase to the district’s insurance contribution and an additional day of personal leave. It also includes longevity stipends for teachers when they reach 20, 25 and 30 years at the district. The agreement caps the number of teachers who can get a raise related to their level of education at 15 per year. Superintendent Micah Hill said online school has increased and expedited the number of teachers earning credits toward a master’s degree or Ph.D. The amount budgeted to bump those teachers’ pay has increased from about $100,000 to $350,000 annually, he said. All teachers will receive the increased salary to match their education, but it may just take more time, Hill said. MEA President Scott Chook said the agreement was not everything the union wanted but was likely more than the district wanted to give, “a hallmark of good negotiation.”
On Thursday, the Missoula County commissioners approved a proposed residential and commercial development at the old Lolo School. The Belltower Subdivision at 11395 Highway 93 S. includes 56 single-family residential lots, one commercial lot and one large lot with no immediate development plans. The developer, MCG-Vines of California, is proposing dedicating 16.7 of the property’s 33.75 acres as public parkland. The county plans to expand a trail network on the parkland, said Jennie Dixon, a county planner. Only the 56 homes are planned for immediate construction, given the area’s water and sewer limitations, according to the staff presentation. All but two old school buildings will be demolished. Building 4 will be preserved for future use, and the Old Lolo Schoolhouse will remain protected in its current condition. Lolo resident Tyler Pike asked the commissioners to restore a disc golf course on the parkland. Nick Zanetos, with the county’s parks department, said the county will work with the disc golf community, but it is too early to commit to that use of the park.
A new temporary weekend Mountain Line bus route to Marshall Mountain starts Saturday and runs through Oct. 26. The pilot program will run hourly from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. from the downtown transit center with stops at Missoula College and the Sha-Ron fishing access site on the outbound route only. The bus can accommodate up to 16 passengers and 16 bikes. No e-bikes or dogs are allowed at the park or on the shuttle. Mountain Line and Missoula County will gather data and feedback to inform future recreation shuttles, according to a press release.
The Sunset Hill Road bridge near Greenough is closed until further notice following an inspection showing it can no longer carry traffic safely or reliably, according to Missoula County Public Works. A recent Montana Department of Transportation inspection of the single-lane bridge, constructed in 1907, showed increased damage to the truss and prompted the closure. Missoula County officials are coordinating a meeting with agencies to discuss impacts to residents and recreators and possible solutions. Replacing the bridge will cost about $4.1 million. The county applied for two federal grants in recent years but didn’t receive them.
Might be Fun
The Missoula Family YMCA is holding a community block party Thursday, Sept. 18, to celebrate the reopening of its renovated campus. The free event runs from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. and includes music, bounce houses, food trucks, guided tours and an all-ages cornhole tournament. Registration for the cornhole tournament is $15 per team. Space is limited to eight teams, and the winner will get $120.
The event marks the completion of the Y’s “Here for Good” capital project that included renovations to the main building, a new child care center, a covered outdoor court space, an adjacent splash pad and an all-abilities playground. The organization raised about $18.5 million of its $20.3 million goal, and fundraising is ongoing.