By Daily News staff
Havre and Hill County are featured from cover to cover in a glossy publication released this week by the Montana Department of Labor and Industry, Department of Commerce and the Governor's Office of Economic Opportunity.
About 200 copies of the second edition of Main Street Montana will arrive in Havre on Monday for distribution at Havre Job Service and the Havre Area Chamber of Commerce Office.
The bi-annual publication focuses on every aspect of the area's economy through articles, graphs and brightly colored photographs. Several historic pictures dot the magazine, including a front cover photo of an early day Buttrey delivery truck and a back cover photo of the Fountain Barbershop display in Havre Beneath the Streets.
Havre native and director of the Department of Commerce, Tony Priete, introduces the magazine in a Page 2 letter and follows up with a Page 18 reflection on his youth and early business successes in Havre.
“Each issue of our magazine is devoted to ‘doers' in our community; the people on the ground floor, who are on the fast track,” DLI Commissioner Keith Kelly said in a press release. “The people of Hill County will tell you they aren't going to be Montana's economic caboose.”
Preparing employers and training workers for the professional and occupational skills that Montanans will need for employment in the future is one of the governor's top priorities, the release said. As Montana continues to solicit industries such as alternative energy, value added agriculture, natural resource development, building trades, healthcare, and technology-based fields, we must not lose sight of the current contributors to our state's achievement - the true entrepreneurial gamut of goods and service providers, the release said. Each edition of the Main Street provides gems of information from the various divisions within the three agencies to assist more than 35,000 Montana employers in maximizing their business potential.
“The employer's stories inspire other entrepreneurs and industries to seek Montana as a viable place to do business,” Kelly said. “With a small $1 per business per year investment (cost of publication), we have the ability to showcase the best Montana has to offer and attract prospective industries. As a result, we create a plan that helps move all Montanans forward and grow our economy.”
An electronic copy of the publication is available at www.mainstreet.mt.gov, or by visiting the Department of Labor and Industry home page at www.dli.mt.gov
People who would like a hardcopy, can contact Michelle Robinson at (406) 444-1520 or by mail at the Department of Labor and Industry, P.O. Box 1728, Helena, MT 59624-1728.
