People talk about the past year on New Year's in Havre

New Year’s Eve in Havre was a celebration for many, some celebrating a positive year and others celebrating that the year has come to an end.

Megan Obrecht said, while out celebrating the New Year Monday, that 2018 was an exciting year with her purchasing a house and having friends and family visiting or possibly moving back to Havre in 2019.

Matthew Emge said he was excited with passing flight school in 2018 and looks forward to moving back to Havre with his wife, Melissa, who added that in 2018 they also had a daughter, Audrey.

Jessie Obrecht said some of her highlights of 2018 are that she bought a camper and went on a week-and-a-half hike around Glacier National Park. She added that she looks forward to visiting her sister more in 2019 and also has set a goal of saving money for retirement.

Morgan Mooney, who was celebrating her birthday, said 2018 was special because she moved to Havre in April from Texas and since then has met several great people. Mooney said the first week that she was here, she was able to find two full-time jobs.

“From what I hear, winter is also not as bad as it was last year, so that’s a plus,” Mooney said.

She said she looks forward to new adventures and the new experiences that might come with 2019. Mooney added that she also looks forward to making new connections with people who are coming into Havre and finding out what Montana is all about.

Ashley Hofland, who was bartending at Vic’s Place, said she is looking forward to 2019 because she will be turning 21. She added that 2018 was a fun, exciting time for her because she traveled to Mexico for the first time and was accepted into the education program at the University of Montana.

Kambri Bender, also tending bar at Vic’s, said she is starting in the nursing program at Montana State University-Northern this year and is excited to attend classes in the program. She said she wants to be a nurse because she likes helping people and sees it as a great experience. She added that having her tough stomach helps, too.

Hofland and Bender agreed that 2018 also was good because they both got jobs as bartenders at Vic’s, where they met and became friends.

James Carden, Zach Nicholson, Grant Olson and Morgan Lomayesva were celebrating at Havre Eagles Club. They agreed that one of the highlights for Havre this year was the opening of two more breweries and a distillery.

Earlier Monday, some local officials said they look back on 2018 positively, with Havre making progress and the future holding many possibilities for the city.

Havre Public Works Director Dave Peterson said that in the last year, Havre was able to finish recoating the inside of the two water tanks, to complete some road work around town and to maintain other projects.

He added that another accomplishment for the city is settling the legal battle on the Bullhook storm sewer project, opening up 2019 as the year to have the project completed two years after it started. Peterson said work should begin this winter or spring and be completed by the before the end of 2019.

Parts of Bullhook, which runs through Havre into the Milk River and is under streets and buildings for much of its route, started collapsing in 2013 and a review of the drainage showed it needed a major upgrade. Kincaid Civil Construction out of Mesa, Arizona, was awarded in 2016 the contract to rebuild the drainage system, but never completed the project and the city went into negotiations about the project, entering into arbitration last year.

In October, the arbitrator made a decision favoring Havre, including the city receiving money for attorney fees, and Havre moved to the next phase with Kincaid’s bonding company, Guaranteed Company of North America, taking over the project.

Peterson said the two water tanks that were repainted were in need of the recoating, the last time being in 1985,

“It was a good project to get done,” Peterson said.

He added it cost approximately $1.6 million to recoat both tanks.

The city also made a couple of equipment purchases including a new vacuum truck.

He said the old one was about 11 or 12 years old and the new truck cost the city about $370,000.

“Keeps up going, keeps us being able to clean our storm sewer system and keeping all that stuff running,” Peterson said.

“There was some stuff we were able to get through this year that we wouldn’t have been able to do last year,” he added.

Bear Paw Development Corp. Executive Director Paul Tuss said one of the big accomplishments in Havre was that the overall economy of the area was very stable in 2018.

Tuss added that great things also are happening at Northern with the university utilizing their new diesel tech center. He said there is a level of optimism that is very beneficial at Northern currently.

He said Bear Paw also continued to work with government partners to fund critical infrastructure like water, sewer and bridges.

“We had a healthy year and we look forward to continuing that,” Tuss said, adding that 2019 will also be Bear Paw’s 50th anniversary.

He said 2019 will be an interesting year because the Montana Legislature will be in session. Much of the funding for Bear Paw depends on the Legislature investing in infrastructure, Tuss said. He added that they will be very focused for the 90 days that the Legislature is in session in Helena. Infrastructure is a building block of the statewide economy, he said.

He said that with the closing of big box stores, such as Herberger’s, Sears and Kmart, the negative press overshadowed what was a fairly standard year.

Bear Paw Development had many high points this year, Tuss said, with the organization continuing to work with dozens of entrepreneurs who wanted to start businesses or grow their businesses.

2018 was also the year of the brewery, Tuss said, adding that be believes no other community in Montana, approximately the same size as Havre, has three breweries. Two new breweries and a distillery opened in Havre in the past year.

Tuss said these businesses become destinations for people who are passing through Havre, which is beneficial to the local economy.

“Without question, a bright spot in the local economy,” he said. 

Overall, the Havre area had a good year, he said.

“We are not anything if not resilient,” Tuss said. “You can go back decades and you can look at the economy of Havre, population of Havre, and we’ve had our ups and downs but we’ve been very stable, and, in rural America, I’ll take stable any day. Stable is good.”