THE LOCAL NEWS OF THE MADISON VALLEY, RUBY VALLEY AND SURROUNDING AREAS MONTANA’S OLDEST PUBLISHING WEEKLY NEWSPAPER. ESTABLISHED 1873 75¢ | Volume 148, Issue 14 Thursday, March 12, 2020 [email protected] | 406-843-5247 Corridor study on Hwy 84 PUBLIC INPUT ENCOURAGED Montana is the oldest state west of the Mississippi, and demographic In the past, up- dated signage and projections show the state growing collectively older as more Montanans rumble strips were added to this area enter their senior years. The economic, cultural, and personal impacts of that to decrease crash trend present the state and its residents with new challenges and, with those clusters. MDT plans to add left challenges, opportunities. turn lanes into Red Mountain Graying Pains is a six-month series of weekly stories and broadcasts exploring Campground and those challenges and opportunities in communities statewide. By investigating PHOTO COURTESY how other communities have responded to the issues raised by aging, Graying OF MD Pains hopes to point the way toward policies and innovations that can help Montana, and Montanans, improve with age. The series is produced by the Montana Fourth Estate Project, a collaboration among 16 Montana newsrooms and the University of Montana School of By KEELY LARSON to “tricky curves,” Jason Senn, firm, Morrison Majerle, was Journalism under the auspices of the Montana Newspaper Association and the [email protected] with MDT, said. Quite a few hired to start the year and a half crashes have occurred in this long corridor study. A corridor Solutions Journalism Network. See montanafourthestate.org for the collected Montana Department of small area, hence the title crash study is conducted early in proj- Graying Pains stories and more information. Transportation (MDT) an- clusters, and indicated a need ects to find possible solutions to nounced the Highway 84 East of for change. problems. Currently, there are Norris Corridor Study with the Carving into the moun- no obvious answers for Hwy 84 goal of straightening Hwy 84 tainside to make curves longer, and many above options would between Red Mountain Camp- redirecting the road around be economically infeasible, Senn ground and Warm Springs Boat the mountains or tunneling said. HOW, WHERE, AND WHY Launch to work towards MDT’s through mountains, and build- “Really, nothing’s off the Vision Zero by reducing crash ing a bridge to direct traffic to table at this point,” he said. clusters in the area. Vision Zero the other side of the Madison The most feasible, economic MONTANA BECAME THE aims to eliminate deaths and River were suggested in a press and environmentally-sound injuries on Montana highways. release as options to combat option will be chosen as the Crash clusters were identi- crash clusters. final answer after the study is GRAYEST STATE IN THE WEST fied on this stretch of road due A consulting engineering completed. Once identified, it By ERIC DIETRICH AND BRAD TYER, Montana Free Press 84 continued on A3 eople have been parsing 1980’s, British historian Peter government policies and cultural the human lifespan Laslett proposed a revised map customs that influence them. into a taxonomy of ages of three ages, with a caveat for Navigating those factors requires forever.P Aristotle proposed three the third: it could be a time of independence, assistance, ac- VIRGINIA CITY TOWN COUNCIL categories: youthful, prime of post-retirement fulfillment and cess, and education. The latter, life, and elderly. Two thousand achievement, or it could collapse, especially, is lacking. Missoula years later, Shakespeare’s Seven a la Shakespeare, into depen- Aging Services Executive Di- New pavillion on Wallace Street Ages of Man carved human dence and decrepitude. rector Susan Kohler told a room chronology into seven slices, The character of any individ- full of Montana journalists in BY HANNAH KEARSE the summer. The pavilion is show that a building has never with the body’s final frailty ual’s third age hinges on some November that one of the biggest [email protected] planned to be available for pub- been on the lot. Jim Jarvis from circling back to the original key factors, including health, impediments to a fulfilling third lic use and to rent for private the Virginia City Historic Pres- oblivion of infancy. And in the wealth, community, and the age is “lack of preparedness.” A structure, where a struc- events before summer of 2020. ervation Advisory Council said ture has never been, will be “It’s a nice design, it will be that he has not dealt with the built in Virginia City’s Historic well built but it’s a new build- concept of preserving a space. GET READY District. ing in an old space,” owner of “I feel that the site is already The Virginia City Town Rank’s Mercantile, Toni James being compromised by virtue of Already, Montana is the old- Florida, Maine, and a few other 2017, the baseline year used by Council approved a Montana said. “That concerns me because the temporary tents that show est state west of the Mississippi, eastern states. those projections, 18% of Mon- Heritage Commission site and I feel like we’re losing Virgin- up every summer, year after according to median age statis- Peak age is yet to come, tanans were 65 or older, up from zoning permit for a pavilion ia City because of things like year,” Jarvis said. “If my choice tics from the U.S. Census Bureau. according to demographic 14% in 2001. The figure is expect- on Wallace Street March 5. The that. I can see why they want it is temporary tents that don’t With half the state’s population projections produced for the ed to climb to 22% by 2030 then timber-framed structure will and why they need it, so I have look very good verses a perma- 40 or older, we’re the 9th oldest state Department of Commerce plateau through 2040 as boomers replace the tents on the Bale mixed emotions.” nent structure that will visually in the nation, out-grayed only by by consulting firm REMI. As of reach the end of their lives. of Hay Saloon’s patio during Old maps of Virginia City disappear, I will take the struc- GRAYING PAINS continued on A2 VC continued on A3 TABLE OF CONTENTS LOCAL NEWS ................................................................................ 1-6 COMICS/GAMES ........................................................................... B4 OPINIONS ..........................................................................................4 CLASSIFIEDS ................................................................................. B5 Visit us online @ PANORAMA .................................................................................... B1 PUBLIC NOTICES .......................................................................... B7 HEALTH & WELLNESS .................................................................. B2 OUTPOST ..................................................................................... B10 www.madisoniannews.com COLUMNS ...................................................................................... B3 THE MADISONIAN A2 March 12, 2020 GRAYING PAINS continued FROM A1 Graying Montana: Portion of population above retirement age Custom Building Design % of county population 65-plus & 10% 20% 30% 40% 2001 (recorded) 2017 (recorded) • Conventional Frame Homes • Commercial Remodels & Additions • Hand-crafted Log Homes 2030 (projected) 2040 (projected) All phases of construction, design and consulting e-mail: [email protected] | www.bandeconstruction.com brad bullock 581-4117 | ken evans 490-2758 | office 682-7942 p.o. box 1444 Ennis, MT 59729 Data: REMI for MT Dept. of Commerce; Graphic: Eric Dietrich / MTFP 121 West Main Street, Ennis, MT Gemcore (waterproof LVT & Hardwood) Different parts of the state, however, projected to be 27%, up from 22%. ed to rise to 21% and 15%, respectively, by Carpet - Vinyl - Hardwoood are on very different trajectories. Sparsely Population centers like the Billings area 2030. NO JOB TOO BIG OR SMALL! populated rural counties tend to have higher tend to trend closer to the state as a whole, Counties with sizable Native American percentages of seniors and are, in many age-wise, though college towns Missoula populations, such as Roosevelt County Owner/Sales/Installation - Rob Blair (406) 539-1440 cases, on track to become even more dis- and Bozeman are substantially younger than (including Wolf Point), Big Horn County proportionately older. Petroleum County’s other urban areas, and are expected to stay (including Hardin and Crow Agency), and 520 residents make it the lowest-population that way. Seniors 65 and over accounted Glacier County (including Cut Bank and county in Montana, and by 2030, 37% of for 16% of the population of Yellowstone Browning) are also younger than neighbor- county residents will be past retirement age, County (including Billings) and 12% of the ing rural areas. Roosevelt County, with only up from 23% in 2017. For Teton County, population of Gallatin County (including 11% of its population over 65, is the state’s northwest of Great Falls, the 2030 figure is Bozeman) in 2017. Those figures are project- youngest by that measure. Sherwood Swanson WHY THE STATE IS AGING Driving those trends are three key sus Bureau, longer life expectancies and for American Indian Montanans, with Drywall Inc. demographic forces: birth, death, and declining birth rates are also a factor that’s DPHHS reporting a median age of death Hanging Finishing migration. Higher birth rates pull areas aging American communities across the at 60 for Native