Committee asks for three-year pilot for Wild Horse extended hours

Paul Tuss, executive director of Bear Paw Development Corp. and member of the Wild Horse Border Committee, speaks Wednesday about the economic impact of upgrading the Port.

The committee trying to get a border crossing north of Havre upgraded to a 24-hour commercial port is pushing for a more extensive test of the proposal — a three-year pilot program with 16 hours of operation seven days a week.

Havre Mayor Tim Solomon, who co-chairs the Wild Horse Border Committee with Medicine Hat, Alberta, Mayor Norm Boucher, said at a meeting in Havre Wednesday that the committee finds it "frustrating" that it generally doesn't know until a few days before border hours are extended whether it will happen — this year not finding out until weeks after the change was supposed to happen.

"So that's what our frustration is. No one can plan ahead, " Solomon said. "And that's why the committee finally voted, let's try a three-year pilot... so people can plan and (we can) find out what kind of traffic numbers would be out there. "

Wild Horse is open 8 a. m. to 5 p. m. during winter hours and 8 a. m. to 9 p. m. in the summer. Commercial vehicles must receive a permit in advance before they can cross the border at the port.

For nearly a decade, the Wild Horse Border Committee has advocated upgrading the crossing to a 24-hour commercial port. The only 24-hour commercial port between Alberta and Montana is at Sweetgrass-Coutts, north of Shelby.

Montana's U. S. Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester have long advocated for upgrading the port, including it being a major topic of discussion at a town hall forum when the two brought U. S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano to Havre, and when Tester brought then-Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection Alan Bersin back to Havre.

Baucus is again trying to include having pilot programs expanding northern ports to 24-hour commercial ports in the current reauthorization for Homeland Security, and his representative said he continues to support the committee's work, including the request for a three-year pilot project.

Tester's office also applauded the effort.

"Senator Tester will keep a close eye on the pilot program proposal and continue to support all efforts that strengthen small businesses and the economy in Havre and along the Hi-Line, " spokeswoman Andrea Helling said this morning.

U. S. Rep. Denny Rehberg, who is challenging Tester in the Montana Senate race, had not responded by deadline to a request made to his office for comments.

Wednesday's meeting was organized by the Citizens for a 24 Hour Port group — Bob Sivertsen, Bob Kaul and Jim Treperinas.

Sivertsen said extending the number of months summer hours are used has not had the intended effect — with he and others commenting that confusion on which side was doing what and having different periods on different sides of the border, as well as the proposal first being declined this year then approved later than requested adding to the problem.

"This 16-7, we believe, would give us an opportunity to raise those traffic numbers …, " Sivertsen said. "(The) extended summer hours, they didn't get us to where we thought we should be as far as increasing traffic numbers because businesses cannot plan their travel plans on such a short window, and they're not going to. "

Len Mitzel, former member of the Alberta legislature and a member of the Wild Horse Border Committee and the board of Ports to Plains, an alliance trying to improve the trade corridor from Texas north to Alberta and Saskatchewan, said the need is to convince trucking companies that there is an alternative to using the increasingly backed up port at Sweetgrass. Wild Horse could be that alternative.

"But if it's open for extended hours, 13 hours or whatever, then it's not, then it is, then it isnt, they aren't going to change, " Mitzel said. "(The pilot is) to try to give an assurance of extended hours. "

Medicine Hat Deputy Mayor Phil Turnbull, who sat in for Mayor Boucher, said the increasing traffic — Mitzel said Coutts had 1,400 megaloads booked by February to use the port — is causing delays and backing up traffic. Wild Horse could help with that, and help the communities on both sides of the crossing.

"Like your city, we want to be able to take advantage of that two-way traffic, " Turnbull said. "We want to build our communities we want to send our kids to schools … so we all want the same thing. But we can't get it when we have one single port. "

Kaul said he has data from Customs and Border Protection showing that traffic through the port coming into Montana has increased — nearly doubled — since he started tracking the data in 2005.

Mitzel asked if he had data about traffic increases going north — Kaul did not — to which Bear Paw Development Director Paul Tuss, also a member of the Wild Horse Border Committee added that that data could potentially double the numbers.