By Josh Margolis
HAVRE, Mont. (NMB) – The Hill County Commission convened on Thursday morning for their weekly business meeting and approved a subdivision and amended plat of a subdivision from Harmon Properties.
The first approval was to create a 6-acre subdivision near Big Equipment that Ron Harmon says will be the site of a 20,000 square feet FedEx facility.
“FedEx approached me some time ago and wanted to build out where they could bring in semis, instead of having smaller trucks on the road, we all see a lot of them coming from Great Falls. (This is) to have a facility where they could service much more of the Hi-Line at this location, instead of trying to do so much of it out of Great Falls or have smaller trucks arrive. So it’s FedEx’s facility,” said Harmon. “Some of you might have noticed we have a temporary facility in (Big Equipment’s) front yard expediting some of this until the building gets built out. It’s anticipated being built out sometime by June.”
FedEx did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The second approval was for an amended plat of subdivision, as Harmon Properties is gifting 42 acres of land located east and south of Schine Electric. The plan is for an Equine Center to be built for the college rodeo team, while also providing a space for new courses to be taught.
“The Harmon family has agreed to gift that 42 acres to MSU-Northern to help with… what they want to do is have some type of an equestrian center there,” said Harmon. “There has been drawings and some things done on it. It looks beautiful if they are able to put all of that together. It will take time … There’s a proposed center and additional facilities. The idea is to have some running room, so if the kids decide to bring their horse out and ride it a bit and do some things, they have some area to do it in. We’ve been talking about this for several years, this is not a new project. But we decided it was a good use of the property, we appreciate working with the University here, we think it’s a major part of our community, and we think this will bring in more students, and it will bring in a different level if you will, than the college has been able to offer at this point.”
“They’ve already been looking at expanding the programs they can offer based on the facility,” said MSU-Northern Alumni Foundation Executive Director Shantel Cronk.
In a phone conversation with New Media Broadcasters on Thursday afternoon, Chancellor Greg Kegel said that while the center may take a bit to get fundraising to build, the public should notice activity on the lot soon.
“You’re going to see a minor that’s going to be up and running within the year. There will be students in that minor. You’re going to see property out there … It will be available for students to ride horses on and do different types of maybe outdoor (activities). But as far as building the right structure and being patient to make sure that we don’t build the wrong structure, that we build a structure that is serviceable to the community and the campus for many years out there, that might take more time. It just depends on how fast the contributions and donations would come in.”
The original lot for Harmon Properties is about 90 acres. They are splitting it in two, with the 42 acre lot being gifted to MSU-N.
Other action taken at the meeting:
- Approval of a contract upon receipt for Hudson and Associates to provide 60 hours of grant writing to help with an application for a Council on Aging project to assist with dealing with elder abuse in the community. ARPA dollars are being used to fund the grant writing, and the name of the grant is the AmeriCorps Senior America Rescue Plan Senior Demonstration Program grant. The Commission has been in contact with Hudson and Associates and approved the contract before receiving it because the application is due in under two weeks.
- Approval of a resolution amending the County Budget to account for an additional $760 in grant funding from the Department of Justice for the program that is providing a narcotics sniffing K9 to the Hill County Sheriff’s Office. They have already received a $10,000 grant for this program, and the additional grant will be used for operating supplies.
