FROM THE BILLINGS CHAPTER

Jason Albaugh, MNLA Billings Chapter Committee Chair

The Billings Chapter has been busy as usual! Since our last Leaflet update, we have had a string of extracurricular events, and just got back to our first educational meeting since June. We were fortunate to have great attendance at our summer events. We had Family Fun Night at the Billings Mustangs, with close to 150 people attending! We then had our golf tournament out at Briarwood

Golf Club. We had a great time, with 21 teams and 84 participants. We changed it up a little this year and paid out net and gross winning teams. Our net winner was 2M Co. and our gross champion was Mike D’Hoey Lawn Service. The trophy went home with Mike D’Hoey Lawn Service. We were also able to raise $1,415 for the MNLA Scholarship Fund. We were lucky to have two of our past scholarship recipients come and help us out at this year’s golf tournament. Thank you, Abby Olson and Macey Groener, for helping us to raise money for future scholarship recipients! As soon as we got done with the golf tournament the planning committee got busy working on planning Field Day. We had the challenge of finding a new location this year. River Ridge Landscape Co. is where we usually host it, but they had to re-seed their property due to flooding this Spring, and the new grass wasn’t ready for equipment demos. We decided to have it at Veterans Park, and it turned out to be a great evening. We had nine vendors showcasing equipment and supplies. Thank you to everyone who attended.

We just had our October meeting, which was sponsored by Tvetene Turf. We had Cole Clark give a talk on putting your lawn to bed. Cole is the Golf Course Superintendent at Pryor Creek Golf Club in Huntley, MT. It was a very informative talk that gets you thinking, “Am I doing what I should be doing? Is there a better way?” I think you should always be out there trying to learn and improve your practices. These chapter meetings have helped me to do that. What better way to learn about winterizing lawns than coming out and listening to somebody who does it every year on a beautiful 36hole golf course? We have one more meeting left this year. It is our grand finale meeting in December. We will be giving away our year-end grand prize, which is a drawing for $500 cash. For every chapter meeting that you attend throughout the year you get an entry into the drawing. Our December meeting is going to be sponsored by John’s Home and Yard Service. Ron Hecht with Eide Bailey will be giving a presentation on what you can be doing for business write-offs. Earlier this summer we were contacted by the Billings Career Center asking for help. For those of you who are not familiar with the Billings Career Center, it is our local high school vocational and technical school. They have a program where they build a house

with students each year. They have a construction class, electrical class, and an agricultural plant sciences class work on the house. They were unable to get the house done in time for the kids to do the landscaping portion before school got out so they asked if we could help them out and do the landscaping this year. We asked for volunteers at our chapter meetings. It was amazing how people stepped up and pitched in and we were able to get that done for them. We would like to give a big thank you to the following companies for helping: River Ridge Landscape Co. who did the dirt work, installed the edging, and sprinkler system. CW Design who planted all the plants and ran the drip irrigation. Stoneworks Landscaping who installed the fabric and rock mulch. John Spray Landscape installed the sod. Tvetene Turf donated the sod for the project. Canyon Creek Nursery donated the plants and 2M Co. donated all the sprinkler parts. Thank you all for being a part of this project.

Billings Chapter members enjoying Family Fun Night Scholarship recipients Abigale Olson and Macey Groener with MNLA Past-President Steve Lehenbauer

Golf Tournament Champs, Mike D’Hoey Lawn Service