Locals tell Senator Daines impact of pipeline stoppage Staff Report
Montana Sen. Steve Daines stopped in Baker March 31 for a chance to meet with local business owners and public officials about the economic impact in the community created by the stoppage of the Keystone pipeline project.
A brief stop in Baker gave local business owners a chance to tell a sitting U.S. Senator what the real life impact a decision in the nation’s capital has had in eastern Montana. Owner of Spiffy’s Mobil 1 Express Lube and Wash, Jay Quenzer said that his business dropped about 25 percent when the construction on the Keystone XL pipeline was stopped in late January. He said that the construction business had helped his business to survive during the pandemic. Jodie O’Donnell had a RV park where many of the construction workers were living and by the end of the day that the project was stopped, many had already left. “Hopefully we’ll have another pipeline coming in the summertime. In the fall, we usually have some hunters,” she explained. The mayor of Baker, Steve Zachmann, was just one of the local officials who told the visiting senator of the financial impact the loss of jobs, business and taxes was already having on the community. “It is going to have a ripple effect.” One local impact has been and will be in health care, according to Dave Espeland, the hospital administrator at the Fallon Medical Complex. “You probably know that Medicare is a really big part of business for us. All these ru-
Vendors were selling a variety of items during Saturday’s fundraiser for a feral cat spay and neutering program in Fallon County.
SNIP sees help from vendors, customers
Staff Report
A local spay and neutering program for feral cats in Fallon County got a boost Saturday at the Fallon County Fairgrounds. According to organizer Brittany Bertsch, the vendors show drew more than 30 people selling a variety of items. “It is the first annual vendors show/fundraiser for SNIP – a Spay Neuter Impact Program,” she explained April 3. There were a variety of vendors inside, along with some food vendors, she said. The vendors were selling everything from saddles outside the Exhibit Hall at the fairgrounds, to clothing, home décor and specialty objects inside. It was a good response to the first vendors show, Bertsch said Saturday, with the money raised helping to support the spaying of feral cats in the area to help cut the population down. There has been an impact with COVID-19 in
Fallon County on the program especially with fundraising. “It has been a hindrance because a lot of people have been affected negatively in our community. Whether it is losing jobs, cutting hours or losing revenue … obviously it negatively affects their ability to donate.” “The mission of the Spay-Neuter Impact Program (SNIP for short) is to trap, spay/neuter and release (TNR) feral cats in an effort to decrease the excess populations of abandoned, unwanted and feral cats; vaccinate animals to help decrease the risk of spreading contagious diseases; help improve the lives of abandoned, unwanted and injured animals,” Bertsch explained in her mission statement. “However, the long-term scope is a bit broader once we are a bit more established and registered as a 501c3. The idea down the road is to also be able to help individuals who can’t afford to spay/ neuter their pets as well as help with other medical bills as we can. But we are not at the juncture just yet,” she explained previously.
ral communities pretty much live and die by Medicare. Unfortunately, Medicare doesn’t really pay its fair share. About 60 percent of our revenue comes from Medicare. We have to rely on the people in the community to subsidize us. Fallon County gives us about a million dollars a year in subsidies. We lose about a million dollars a year, so it basically makes up that difference,” he told the senator. “This pipeline is what would actually punt a lot of that subsidy to us.... so it is very important to us that we see it go through to actually be sure that we have affordable health care here.” “Alternatively, without that revenue coming in, I have to charge more money for services,” he said. “That doesn’t do very well for the people in this community. If you are out of work or struggling to stay in work, it is a very big deal. So I appreciate all the efforts you are making to get this pushed through.” Even the owner of Baker Furniture just a few blocks south of where the senator was visiting said that there has been an impact. Another person explained that there is another impact to the loss of jobs and income. “A lot of times, companies that come through are donating and investing in the community as they come through here,” he said. “One of the things that we lose is the investment in our students. Small town students deserve a lot of investment. The money that is spent in (local) businesses is not being funneled into big corporate investors.”
Local businesses are reinvesting the money locally, he added. “It is good for the quality of life.” For Mayor Zachmann, the pipeline is crucial to the economy. “That alone would allow these businesses to recover from 2020 because of the number of people here. Some of those (pipeline) employees were spending $500 to $1,000 a day in subsistence costs within the community. We would have had a fairly good recovery and would not need to count on the payouts from the federal government because this would all basically be private money infused into the community.” “That just dried up on January 20. It is just a huge shock to the community. Now, we have to just struggle through and find another way. The light at the end of the tunnel got dim pretty quick,” he told the senator. The schools are also being affected, according to Baker Superintendent Aaron Skogen. The loss of the pipeline is affecting the tax base and that impacts the schools. From the schools perspective, the biggest thing is the mill value, he said. “It is lowering the revenue from our taxpayers. We rely heavily on oil and gas,” the superintendent said. The Montana senator said that he was there when President Joseph Biden was inaugurated and heard the call to bring America back together. “Then he sat down and killed this project. That is not uniting us. That is dividing us.”