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8/8/2025
“Missoula This Week” is reported and written By Katie Fairbanks. Send your Missoula news and tips to [email protected].
Western Montana Fair aims to be ‘zero-waste’
This week, the Western Montana Fair will generate thousands of pounds of waste as attendees enjoy hot dogs, cotton candy and funnel cake, but the fair can still be considered a “zero-waste” event if a local nonprofit reaches its goal of keeping 90% of that garbage out of the landfill.
Last year, Home ReSource diverted nearly 60,000 pounds of the fair’s waste from the landfill, an 82% diversion rate, said Kelli Hess, the nonprofit’s executive director.
“Nobody’s going to the fair thinking, ‘I’m going to be a good steward of the Earth, I’m going to be sustainable,’ and yet when it’s made easy, everyone can do it and people do,” Hess said. “Every little bit matters, and together we’re making a big difference.”
The organization coordinates and trains more than 200 volunteers at the fair who monitor and sort through the trash, recycling and compost bins and educate people on what goes where, Hess said. For every shift, volunteers get either a daily unlimited carnival ride pass, a ticket to an arena event or $25 in fair food bucks.
The nonprofit began working with the fair three years ago by evaluating where the event’s waste comes from, Hess said. Since food vendors generate the most garbage, Home ReSource coordinates with them ahead of time to help them produce less waste and find compostable serviceware to use, she said.
To help reach the 90% goal, this year the organization set up compost and recycling bins for the vendors to use along with the typical bins for fair-goers, Hess said. Home ReSource also updated the signs on the bins and is keeping the lids closed so people have more time to consider which bin to use, she said.
While Home ReSource may be best known for its reused building materials store, the nonprofit also works to reduce waste throughout the community, Hess said. In the last few years, the organization has focused on large events like the fair, the River City Roots Fest, the Missoula Marathon and Missoula Pride to limit how much ends up in the landfill and use the opportunity to educate the community, she said.
“We want our community to know and people to know that every little bit matters, every little bit helps,” Hess said. “If we can do it at an event with 100,000 people, we can make big differences if we do one thing every day like recycle that pop can or choose one less plastic bag.”
The fair kicked off on Tuesday, Aug. 5, and continues through Sunday, Aug. 10. Admission is free, though carnival rides and arena events cost money. More information is available on the Missoula County Fairgrounds website.
County OKs infrastructure levy for November ballot
The Missoula County commissioners on Thursday approved placing a mill levy on the Nov. 4 general election ballot to raise about $1.8 million annually to help fund construction, repairs and maintenance of public roads and bridges.
If the levy passes, the owner of a $300,000 home would pay an additional $11.40 annually, and the owner of a $600,000 home would pay $26.21.
The county brings in about $6.13 million for roads and $1.38 million for bridges, not including grants, from property taxes, state gas tax and other state and federal sources. The public works department currently budgets $550,000 per year for road maintenance, but a 2020 study found it should spend nearly $3 million annually on paved roads, said Jason Mitchell, the department’s director.
“We need to fix these hard surfaces,” he told the county commissioners on Monday.
The county is responsible for 450 miles of maintained roads, including 264 miles of paved roads and 63 miles of unmaintained roads, Mitchell said. The county also maintains most bridges in Missoula County, including 61 that are over 20 feet long, 62 that are shorter and 346 culverts, he said. Major bridges like those on Madison Street, Higgins Avenue, Orange Street, Russell Street and Reserve Street fall under the federal government’s jurisdiction.
It would cost about $63.3 million to replace the eight bridges in most need of repair, Mitchell said. That includes $30 million for the Maclay Bridge and $3.8 million for the Lolo Street Bridge, projects that have been funded by federal grants. Replacing all the bridges over 75 years, the typical lifespan of a bridge, would cost $165 million or $2.2 million per year, Mitchell said.
The county would prioritize using the levy revenue to repave county roads and provide matching funds when applying to federal grants to replace aging bridges, according to the county’s levy information page.
The commissioners removed a similar levy from the ballot last fall to wait and see what property tax reform would come from the Legislature.
“There’s not enough money to do what we need to do,” Commissioner Dave Strohmaier said Monday. “We said before the last legislative session, when we discussed the levy possibility, we needed to see what the Legislature did or did not do. We saw what they did not do, so here we are.”
A quick note from the MTFP team
It’s been one year since Katie Fairbanks joined MTFP to cover Missoula local news. Because of her reporting, thousands of readers like you have stayed informed and connected with what’s happening in your town. If you’ve found this newsletter useful, shared a story or reached out with a tip — thank you.
To mark the milestone, we’re raising $10,000 to help keep this work going. We hope you’ll consider supporting it.
Following Up
More than 30 people have secured housing as part of the city’s “housing sprint” ahead of closing the Johnson Street homeless shelter at the end of August, according to city staff.
The shelter will close after Labor Day weekend. As of Aug. 1, 33 people secured permanent housing through the housing sprint, and seven have move-in dates in the next couple of weeks, Emily Armstrong, the city’s houseless programs manager, told the Missoula City Council on Wednesday.
Of those housed, 23 found rentals, seven reunited with family, two moved into a long-term care facility, and one moved into transitional housing, Armstrong said. Two of the several people who have been attending the city’s “office hours” at the shelter since the sprint began recently got into housing, she said.
“It’s just a reminder that the process to housing really takes time, and it takes a lot of intentional and consistent effort, but it’s possible with consistent, flexible and targeted resources with low barriers … even in a tight housing market like we’re in right now,” Armstrong said.
The city has spent $98,300 of housing sprint funds on 114 individuals for things like rental assistance, moving costs, identification documents, phones, gas and other costs, Armstrong said. The funding can be truly life-changing, she said.
“For example, paying off a $12,000 restitution debt that’s been lingering over your head for years or paying off $4,800 in arrears that are now resolved,” Armstrong said. “Our ability to remove these burdens really impacts both immediate housing access but also long-term stability.”
The city is working to reach out to people who are eligible for the housing sprint funds but have not used them yet, Armstrong said. Anyone who stayed in the Johnson Street shelter for at least one night between Jan. 1 and March 31 is eligible.
The Johnson Street shelter’s capacity for August is 30 people. The Poverello Center, which operates the shelter, implemented a lottery system to determine who gets a bed if capacity is reached. The average census for July was 60 people, with 70 people on average signing up for the lottery, Armstrong said. So far in August, 48 to 52 people have signed up for the lottery, she said.
During the Johnson Street neighborhood meeting on Tuesday, Stephanie Dolan, the Poverello Center’s development director, said the organization is trying to divert as many people as possible to its Broadway shelter. Though the Poverello has open beds, staff expect it to reach capacity after the Johnson Street shelter closes, Dolan said.
“Right now, we’re not at capacity at the Pov, but we do not have enough room to serve the amount of people who are interested in staying at J-Street right now,” she said.
Dolan said the Poverello Center needs donations of tents and sleeping bags for people who will be moving outside, as well as new socks and underwear, toiletries and coffee. Those interested can drop donations off at the Broadway location.
By the Numbers
The grant amount the Montana Food Bank Network recently received from the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation to expand its distribution capacity. The Missoula-based organization delivers supplies to 330 local food banks and programs throughout the state.
“This grant will immediately help us fill the significant food purchase gap left by federal budget cuts,” Todd Lengacher, director of philanthropy for Montana Food Network, said in a press release. “It will also help us realize our long-held dream of increasing our capacity to work with the myriad farmers and ranchers who want to grow and harvest fresh produce and protein so that together we can ensure that all Montanans have equitable access to high-quality, nutritious food.”
After cuts by the U.S. Department of Agriculture this spring, the Montana Food Bank Network lost contracts funding more than $2.5 million worth of food, said Erin Nuzzo, the nonprofit’s grants administrator. The Emergency Food Assistance Program provided staple foods distributed throughout the state, and the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement allowed the organization to purchase produce from local farmers, Nuzzo said. The emergency assistance program accounted for 20% of the 16 million to 20 million pounds of food the nonprofit delivers annually, she said.
The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation also awarded a $250,000 grant to Bozeman nonprofit Hopa Mountain, which will redistribute the money in small grants to rural and tribal food pantries, and a $200,000 grant to the Livingston Food Resource Center for operating support.
The foundation provided a total of $2.7 million in grants to local food banks late last month following cuts in federal funding amid high demand, according to the press release.
Might be Fun
Missoula Dead Day, a free event honoring the Grateful Dead and the band’s former frontman Jerry Garcia, will take place from noon to 7 p.m. Saturday at Caras Park. The date marks 30 years since Garcia’s death, and 2025 is the 60th anniversary of the band’s formation.
Organized by Lucky 7 Promotions, the event will feature live music from Helena Grateful Dead tribute band 710 Ashbury and Missoula rock band Flash Panda. The event will also include food and drinks for sale and various vendors, including Rockin Rudy’s Attic selling Grateful Dead merch and memorabilia.
