Bear Paw Development features Hi-Line successes

At the annual Bear Paw Development Corp. luncheon, various stories of economic development from north-central Montana were presented.

The speakers at the luncheon were all assisted in some way by Bear Paw Development, which has an aim to help economic growth in north-central Montana.

Mike Radovich of Rad's Deli, Keith Hansen, mayor of Chinook, Caleb Kiser, manager of Montana Horizon Organic Snacks and Tim Brurud, the director of the Boys & Girls Club of the Hi-Line all spoke at the event Thursday.

"While Bear Paw helped with these projects, these folks are the real celebrities," said Paul Tuss, the executive director of Bear Paw Development.

The presentation highlighted some people's successes in 2014.

Radovich gave a short talk about how he got his business started with the help of Bear Paw Development and information about his business.

He said he came up with idea to start the restaurant after talking to a friend in Chinook who was complaining about not having enough options for places to eat in their town. That friend told him he should open a restaurant.

"About that time, the building became available, and we started looking into that," Radovich said. " ... I figured it was either now or never to get something open."

He said working with Bear Paw Development helped him because he was unsure how businesses work.

"I'm a mechanic," he said. "I'm not a business person at all."

After six or seven months, he had a business started and he now offers a line of pizzas and sub sandwiches. They deliver throughout Chinook and he said if people want something and do not see it on the menu, they can ask the skilled cooks and they can come up with something for them.

Keith Hansen, the mayor of Chinook, spoke next about the water treatment projects in Chinook.

"We're a class 3 city with some water treatment updating issues and no funding," Hansen said in his introduction. "Sound familiar?"

He said the partnership between the city of Chinook and Bear Paw began in 1968. In 2012, he was elected to city council. In that position, he was put in charge of the water treatment plant. Bear Paw worked with them to acquire three grants to revitalize their water systems in 2013.

"Thanks for the hard work and dedication of Bear Paw Development," Hansen said.

In January 2014, Hansen became mayor of Chinook. With Bear Paw's help, the city only had to raise water rates $12, instead of $22 or more.

The next speaker, Caleb Kriser, was the manager of a start-up snack business in Big Sandy.

Montana Horizons Organic Snacks began in 2014, and they make a product called Kracklin' Kamut, which is an organic snack based on the ancient grain Kamut.

Their shop is in the old bakery building in Big Sandy and in it they make the snack Kriser said is similar to Corn Nuts, though it's not as hard as that snack.

He said Bear Paw has been a great help to their new company.

"The main thing was we looked at various grants that we could apply for," Kriser said.

"When you go to apply for a grant, one of the first questions that come up are, 'Are we really going to qualify?'" Kriser said. "And if we do, how are we going to stand out among all the other applicants ... ?"

He said Bear Paw helped them answer these questions and they received grant funding from the Montana Growth Through Agriculture Program.

He said the company will do its part in Big Sandy's economy. In the short term, they plan on adding three new jobs to the town and 10 in the long term. Also, they are an active outlet for organic farmers to sell their crops to.

The last speaker of the presentation was Brurud of the Boys & Girls Club of the Hi-Line, based in Havre.

"It's interesting to see the range of businesses Bear Paw has been working with," Brurud said.

The Boys & Girls Club represents the non-profit business that Bear Paw helps, he said. Recently, Bear Paw aided them with one of their biggest problems.

"For the last seven or eight years, we've had this problem where we've had to turn kids away," he said. "We have more kids who want to come to the club than our space will allow."

He said they planned for several years to make an expansion to the club, but they had issues with asbestos. Bear Paw was able to get the club more than $70,000 to help with the costs of removing the asbestos.

"Once that work was done, we could start on the real work on building on our building," he said.

They removed the asbestos during the summer of 2014 and they are slated to open the expansion of the club in "April-ish."

"We're hoping for a springtime opening and this will allow the club to serve 25 percent more kids," he said. " ... That's going to mean a lot to the kids of our community."

He said since the opening date is uncertain, they have put kids on a waiting list.

These fours stories are just a few examples of the work Bear Paw did in 2014, Tuss said.