Dems bring leadership to full day in Havre

Some local legislators — and candidates — are bringing top-level state Democratic lawmakers to Havre next week for an all-day session hearing from local residents, businesspeople and officials.

State Sen. Greg Jergeson, D-Havre, and Democratic candidate for the Havre seat in the state House of Representatives Janet Trethewey said Tuesday it will be a busy day for the legislators in Havre.

Jergeson said the stop, one in a series of stops around the state, will allow the lawmakers to hear about what issues people and organizations face, and some of the achievements that have been made, on the Hi-Line.

He and Trethewey, both candidates in 2014 legislative races, will be joined by Rep. Clarena Brockie, D-Harlem, also a candidate for re-election, and Senate Minority Leader John Sesso, D-Butte, Senate Minority Whip Cliff Larsen, D-Missoula, and House Minority Leader Chuck Hunter, D-Helena, during the listening tour in Havre Wednesday, April 23.

The legislators will meet the evening before for a potluck barbecue at Jergeson’s home in Havre at 818 5th Street.

“The only overtly political event will be the night before,” Jergeson said.

While Jergeson, Trethewey and Brockie are candidates in this year’s election, Jergeson said the tours and meetings next Wednesday are not political in nature.

Trethewey, a Havre City Council member, faces new candidates Republican Stephanie Hess in the race for House District 28, essentially comprising the city of Havre.

Jergeson faces the winner in the Republican primary in Senate District 14 that includes Havre and stretches from the Canadian border in western Hill and Liberty counties to just outside of Great Falls. Those Republican candidates are Rep. Kris Hansen, R-Havre, and political newcomer Carl Mattson of Chester.

Brockie faces Republican Gilbert Bruce Meyers of Box Elder, in his first race for office, in the race for the seat in House District 32, which stretches from the northeastern corner of Chouteau County through Phillips County.

The events next Wednesday start at 7 a.m. with a breakfast with local labor leaders at a conference room at Northern Montana Hospital, followed by a hard-hat tour of the new family practice facility being created at Northern, followed by a tour of the new Bullhook Community Medical Center facility being erected on the 500 Block of 4th Street.

Jergeson said the tours during the day are for legislators only, and people who want to attend the breakfast and lunch are asked to RSVP, but the listening sessions are open to everyone.

After the tour of the Bullhook building, the legislators will hold a discussion of health care issues in the Patterson Room in the basement of Havre City Hall.

The next discussion will be of local government issues focusing on infrastructure and services, also in the Patterson Room in City Hall starting at 11:15 a.m..

Lunch with local business leaders follows in the back room of Guadalajara Restaurant on the 300 Block of 1st Street at noon.

Next is a discussion of agriculture focusing on value-added agriculture and transportation issues starting at 1:15 p.m. in the Hensler Auditorium at Montana State University-Northern’s Applied Technology Center.

Following that discussion will be a tour of that building’s facilities, and of the automotive and diesel technology building that the Legislature partially funding replacing.

The last listening session starts at 3:30 p.m. in Room 303 in Cowan Hall, on education issues.

Jergeson said he and the legislative leaders then will depart for Great Falls, to start the next session of the tour there April 24.

Sessions already have been held in Missoula and Kalispell, he said.

People can call 265-8023 to RSVP for the meals scheduled next Wednesday, and to find the alternate location for Tuesday’s potluck if the weather turns bad.