Blaine County Community Input

Economic Development (private business)

  • Lower water and sewer rates
  • Develop more retail, perhaps a cooperative store
  • Expand child care
  • Remodel City Courthouse, City Hall, Police Dept
  • Upgrade water treatment/sewer systems
  • Seek access to affordable business loans
  • Promote community attractions, events, businesses, and services
  • Improve rest area, fair grounds, walking path
  • Thinking/being more entrepreneurial
  • Education/training for more skilled workforce
  • Fiber optics with Triangle Communications
  • UPS drop stop
  • Revitalize Main Street
  • Attract younger people with new ideas
  • Business opportunity that would bring families to the community

Education

  • Seek grants to improve heating/cooling systems in schools
  • More support for students dealing with substance abuse issues
  • More support for programs to assist people who have dire needs
  • A great early childhood program would be greatly appreciated
  • A couple of days a week to prepare for increasing standards in public school
  • More opportunities for high school graduates other than the family farm; some sort of economic diversification could address that
  • We need more people with children to keep our school
  • If we had a nursing home, maybe we would have more jobs and more children

Employment

  • Seek federal financing and lower interest loans for Main Street businesses
  • Make town more attractive; attract business from Hwy 2
  • Expand Port hours

Energy

  • Explore wind power; biofuel; gas and oil
  • Improve natural gas distribution system
  • Prepare for coming oil & gas boom
  • Encourage cooperation to start up wind projects, solar projects, coal production
  • Negotiate transmission lines for wind projects
  • Produce biofuels on larger scale
  • Develop local energy sources (wind)
  • Thin forests for wood fuel
  • Create program to deliver wood to elders for heating fuel

Environment

  • Enact environmental laws to protect clean air, water
  • Fight noxious weeds (leafy spurge)
  • Clean up Zortman-Landusky mines
  • Secure clean drinking water for all communities
  • Coordinate blocked RR crossings
  • Add another RR crossing
  • Seek CTEP funding for sidewalks

Gaming Employment

  • Need to bring in outside customers
  • Need hotel, shows, and bigger facility

Health

  • Educate doctors & staff
  • Educate community, individuals
  • Update wastewater system
  • Improve ambulance and fire response
  • Recruit younger firefighters and EMTs
  • Use empty storefronts to develop community center
  • Train local First Responders/EMTs
  • Establish local Emergency Room
  • Complete local 911 addressing
  • Meals on Wheels program for elders; better food for Senior Center
  • Safer water system
  • Having a care center would help tremendously
  • Getting produce into grocery store to offer public at affordable prices
  • Closer health care

Housing

  • Seek funding to build homes
  • Develop more senior housing
  • Work with Fort Belknap to develop housing
  • Bring investors to Harlem
  • Renovate existing homes
  • Create senior citizen housing
  • Seek funding, grants, programs
  • Utilize the trade programs from the tribal college; YouthBuild
  • Emergency housing for homeless
  • Need more housing opportunities for young couples coming to community
  • More housing for people moving or building here
  • The government should build housing in our community for border patrol workers who work only 12 miles away This would be big in developing our community. It would bring in revenue and also families to help with the growth of our school
  • More housing available to families larger than 1-2 people so we can have more kids in our school. Without a place to live no one can move here to work or live
  • Develop multi-family housing to take advantage of limited available lots
  • Develop moderate to higher income housing
  • Attract commuters to buy and rent here
  • Rejuvenate existing housing stock
  • Mitigate flood plain problems

Transportation

  • Seek funding to support public transit
  • Have a Master Lube business here
  • Build and maintain better roads, private and tribal
  • Develop student housing to reduce commuting
  • Better Highway 2 (wider and safer)

Parks & Recreation

  • Develop plan to increase tourism
  • Find local work programs to maintain playgrounds and canyon
  • Build programs for children (B&GC Supervisor, pool table, snack bar)
  • Provide security at all times (lights on playgrounds, police patrols, summer park teachers)
  • Build campgrounds in canyon
  • Park needs to be made available to the community for varied uses—need new management/maintenance people
  • Develop community center

Other

  • More police officers
  • More child care programs
  • Support public transit
  • Need more people, more travelers stopping, more incentives to draw people here either to visit or live
  • Fewer restrictions on expansion, building regulations: EPA, FWP
  • Keeping young families in Turner.
  • Public safety—start a Community Watch program
  • Create a communication hub to communicate resident need