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Within two days of arriving in Glasgow for MTFP’s annual “reporter residencies” program, I counted four signs displaying the Hi-Line town’s unofficial slogan: the “Middle of Nowhere.”
The honorific, derived from a 2018 Washington Post analysis that identified Glasgow as the most geographically isolated community in the lower 48 states, has been embraced by the small but hardy community of approximately 3,200.
Glasgow’s rurality is also a defining aspect of its health care landscape. In the week I spent working out of the Glasgow Courier’s office I heard several stories of Hi-Line residents traveling for medical services — sometimes trekking more than four hours one way to Billings or stomaching the high price tag (the most I heard was $30,000) for an emergency medical flight.
Knowing how far Glasgow is from the region’s major medical centers, I wasn’t surprised to hear about those access challenges. What I wasn’t expecting, however, was how much the limitations of local medical services influenced which residents the local nursing home is willing to accept.
Valley View Home, a nonprofit facility that isn’t affiliated with the local hospital, doesn’t have a deep bench of employees able to care for patients with advanced medical needs. It also doesn’t have a robust corps of nursing assistants and support staff to transport residents to Billings or Great Falls for specialty care.
Director of Nursing Emilee Poole said those limitations mean that the home just isn’t the right fit for some residents.
“If we’re taking all these high-acuity residents, it’s not fair to them. Right? Because we can’t provide them the highest level of care,” Poole said.
As is the case with many rural health care providers, daily challenges can be linked back to policies developed hundreds of miles away in Helena. Most of the residents at Valley View Home are on Medicaid, the state-administered program that covers long-term care and services for seniors. But the state’s rate of reimbursement falls short of how much it costs to provide their care, according to Valley View administrator Wes Thompson — even after a roughly 30% increase lawmakers approved in 2023.
Insufficient rates have a cascading effect, Thompson said. It’s hard to find a dentist on the Hi-Line who accepts Medicaid, requiring many of his senior residents to go elsewhere. Without adequate reimbursements for mileage and travel, his nursing home is hesitant to take on patients who need regular transport. The facility, technically licensed for 96 beds, currently has about 48 residents — too few to keep it financially viable.
These realities are a regular part of the struggle for rural nursing home administrators across Montana. But for some residents of Glasgow and other towns on the Hi-Line, it’s a status quo that state officials and lawmakers don’t seem to appreciate.
“I’m not going to play on sympathies for eastern Montana,” said state Sen. Mike Lang, R-Malta, one of the lawmakers who voted to increase Medicaid rates last year. “We have decided to live here. We have some things we like. But Helena doesn’t listen too good.”
As the Legislature comes back into session in Helena early next year, Medicaid and health access will once again be a major issue. Thompson and other provider advocates say they’re planning to be there to make sure the committee room in the state Capitol includes their voices from the middle of nowhere.
READ MORE: How one rural nursing home keeps its doors open — and hopes to grow.
—Mara Silvers, Reporter
Hot Potato 🥔
The fate of the much-debated Colstrip power plant was cast into the spotlight once more on Tuesday when NorthWestern Energy announced it is again acquiring an expanded share of the plant.
More specifically, NorthWestern will be acquiring Puget Sound Energy’s 370-megawatt share of the plant, enough to give Montana’s largest utility a 55% ownership stake in the nearly 40-year-old plant come Jan. 1, 2026.
NorthWestern said this week that holding a majority stake will allow it to “effectively guide investments in operation and maintenance” of the plant, which is facing at least one costly upgrade in the coming years to comply with new climate- and public health-related regulations. With four of the plant’s co-owners publicly committed to earlier exit dates that could make them less interested in putting money toward upgrades, however, it’s unclear if that will play out as NorthWestern is planning.
There are at least three different plant exit dates in play among the facility’s six owners. That means there are varying degrees of appetite to pick up the price tag to put, say, a $600 million emissions-cleaning baghouse filter in the plant to comply with stricter pollution regulations, or to install carbon dioxide sequestration technology, which was estimated at $1.3 billion in 2018. Two Washington-based utilities have planned a Dec. 31, 2025, exit date to comply with climate laws in that state. Two additional Oregon-based utilities are planning to exit by no later than 2030, but are barred from having their ratepayers pay for upgrades that would extend the plant’s life beyond 2025.
NorthWestern Energy told MTFP this week that it plans for the plant to be operational until “at least 2042.”
The operational life of an American coal plant averages 45 years, per the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The reliability of Colstrip, which opened its currently operational units in 1984 and 1986, has come into question given outages during two recent periods of high electricity demand in the state.
When Colstrip’s ownership agreement was first drafted in 1981, the largest owner controlled less than 30% of the plant, so a situation where one owner has a majority stake puts the agreement into uncharted waters.
One piece of the agreement specifies that matters pertaining to a repair that tops $2 million must be approved by “at least two other Committee members, so that the Committee members voting for approval represent at least 55% of the total Project Shares.” (Per the initial agreement, each of the six co-owners was allotted one person to represent their interests on the committee that guides investment decisions.)
The agreement also lays out what happens if the owners representing at least 45% of Colstrip’s shares dispute a high-dollar investment. In that situation, the matter can be referred to an arbitrator, a presumably messy and protracted process that’s not subject to public scrutiny.
Arbitration wouldn’t be a first for the plant’s owners, who have a history of working at cross-purposes.
—Amanda Eggert, Reporter
Olympian Watch 🥇
A week into the 2024 Paris Olympics, athletes with Montana roots have already made their mark.
Katharine Berkoff earned a bronze medal in the women’s 100-meter backstroke final on Tuesday. Berkoff, 23, is from Missoula and is the daughter of David Berkoff, a four-time Olympic medalist.
Competitive shooter Ivan Roe, from Manhattan, finished 18th in the team 10-meter air rifle event, 20th in the men’s 50-meter rifle three-positions event and 34th overall in the men’s 10-meter rifle event. Roe, 28, is the highest-ranked U.S. team member in the three-position rifle event.
Cameron Wood, 22, is competing in the BMX biking category. On Thursday, Aug. 1, he tied for fourth place during the quarterfinal race and was slated to compete in the semifinals Friday. Wood was born in Great Falls and grew up in Bozeman before moving to Arizona in high school.
Additionally, archery competitor Brady Ellison, who was born in Arizona and moved to Billings in 2022, is a four-time Olympian who medaled during the Rio and London games. Ellison, 35, took first in elimination rounds on Thursday and will compete for a spot in the quarterfinals on Aug. 4.
—JoVonne Wagner, Reporter
By the Numbers 🔢
Number of active job postings for licensed public school positions on the Office of Public Instruction’s employment portal as of Thursday. The postings include openings for teachers, counselors, administrators and paraprofessionals in school districts across Montana, and may capture some redundant listings or positions that have recently been filled.
With the start of the 2024-25 school year approaching, Montana schools of all sizes are once again contending with the state’s ongoing teacher shortage. Challenges finding qualified applicants to fill open positions have prompted many districts in recent years to rely on provisional licensing and on emergency authorizations — essentially a green-light from the state to hire an individual who does not fully meet the requirements for a licensed teacher. OPI issued 176 emergency employment authorizations last year.
Education leaders are also increasingly focusing on retention. In a bid to help prepare new hires for the rigors of a public school classroom, the Alliance for Curriculum Enhancement, which provides curricula and support services for many rural schools, is hosting an inaugural “boot camp” next week at Lockwood High School outside Billings for roughly 125 early career teachers. Executive Director Jenny Combs told MTFP the training is designed to help starting teachers, particularly those working under emergency authorizations, develop the rules and skills necessary to work with students and school administrators. The organization is also launching a mentoring program this fall in partnership with researchers at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks.
—Alex Sakariassen
Viewshed 🌄
Aug. 5 marks the 75th anniversary of the Mann Gulch Fire tragedy, which took the lives of 13 men. Twelve of the 13 were smokejumpers, members of an elite U.S. Forest Service unit designed to parachute from aircraft into remote areas of forest threatened by wildfire. The lessons learned from the Mann Gulch Fire continue to have a significant impact on modern smokejumping organization, strategy and safety. This weekend, Helena, Kalispell and Ronan will host events to commemorate the fallen firefighters.
READ MORE: 75 years after fatal Mann Gulch Fire, families to gather to remember fallen smokejumpers.
Firewatch 🔥
Despite dry conditions across the state this week, the Grouse and Miller Peak fires remain the only two Montana fires of more than 800 acres that continue to grow. With smaller fires continuing to crop up around Montana, a hot and wet forecast offers both relief and risks for responders.
The Grouse Fire was reported on Thursday, July 25, and grew to cover 800 acres across Beaverhead County. As of Friday, the fire is manned by 225 firefighters.
“That number I do expect to increase,” Public Information Officer Michelle Peterson said, highlighting the arrival of several engines, helicopters and Hotshot crews on Thursday afternoon. She said crews consider about 50 structures at risk from the fire.
Meanwhile, the Miller Peak Fire burns seven miles southeast of Missoula. The nearly three-week-old fire has racked up a price tag of $15 million, according to InciWeb.
Several smaller fires are also burning in southeast Montana, including the 757-acre Nelson Draw Fire near Birney. Additionally, the Garvin Basin fire was reported on Thursday in the southwestern corner of the Crow Reservation. According to InciWeb, despite its growth to over 400 acres in a single day, responders expect the fire to be completely contained by Aug. 5.
The weekend forecast includes incoming moisture alongside fire risks, including lightning strikes and high temperatures.
“All of western Montana and areas along the [continental] divide are going to be seeing the threat of dry thunderstorms that potentially could start a few new fires,” said Alex Lukinbeal, a National Weather Service meteorologist stationed in Missoula. And though there are no major air quality concerns, Lukinbeal warned of high temperatures statewide.
SEE ALSO: MTFP’s summer 2024 fire dashboard.
—Zeke Lloyd, Fire Intern
Highlights ☀️
In other news this week —
NorthWestern Energy’s Colstrip deal wasn’t the only major acquisition the company announced this week. As Matt Hudson reports, NorthWestern also plans to acquire Great Falls-area natural gas utility Energy West Montana in a $39 million deal.
A federal investigation released this week concludes that at least 973 Native American children died in abusive government-funded boarding schools between 1820 and 1969. The Associated Press reports that U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who commissioned the investigation, has suggested the federal government should issue a formal apology.
As of
