Hometown Helena Thursday, May 8th: School Insurance, Emergency Preparedness

Watch this week's meeting here.

Hometown Helena this Thursday, May 8th: School Insurance, Emergency Preparedness

May 6, 2025


Hey Y’All,


The 69th Legislature has left the building! Despite predictions to the contrary life as we know it continues; and Helena settles back into its usual routine after an exciting winter. Our thoughts turn to track, golf and tennis meets, upcoming graduations, weddings, getting gardens planted, hitting the rivers to float or fish, and hiking or biking the trails near town. Please do enjoy whatever you do for fun this summer.  But don’t forget Thursday mornings and Hometown Helena. We have some great guests and programs coming up, and this week is no exception.


John Doran, former editor of the Helena Independent Record, will join us to discuss a project he took on awhile back. He is working with the larger school districts in Montana to establish a self funded program for health insurance. This is a creative approach to tackling a problem that has troubled school administrators for quite some time. Looking forward to hearing from Mr. Doran and learning more about his work on this worthy effort. 


In addition, with summer may come the hot, dry weather and the risk of wildfires in Helena. Toward that end we have asked folks from key agencies to join us this week for an update on that we might expect; and more importantly what each of us can do in our own homes and yards to mitigate the danger of a wildfire. 


Our guests and presenters this week will be Lois Olson with the Tri-County Firesafe Working Group; Brad Langsather, Open Lands Manager for the City of Helena; Leo Dutton, Lewis and Clark (L&C) County Sheriff; and Kyle Sturgill-Simon, Emergency Manager L&C county/COAD Member.

COAD was a new acronym for me. It stands for Community Organizations Active in Disaster (COAD). We will learn more this week, but here’s   a little information from the L&C county website: The mission of the Tri-County Community Organizations Active in Disaster is to coordinate effective, efficient, and streamlined service delivery to people affected by disaster, while eliminating unnecessary duplication of effort, through the four phases of disaster: preparation, response, recovery and mitigation.

Finally, we have something special scheduled for May 22. Right after our regular Hometown that day, we are all invited to stay at Helena College for another hour to watch and discuss a video entitled “Why Should I Care?” This half hour video has to do with this folks who are homeless in Helena, and was produced by Jeanne Warden and Valerie Hellerman, who are familiar to all of us who attend Hometown Helena.  Plan now to stay after on May 22, if you can, to watch this moving video and discuss the situation with your friends at Hometown Helena.

Jim Smith

406-949-1002

May 15

  • Veteran Resources

    • Impact MT

    • Montana Joining Community Forces

    • Volunteers of American Northern Rockies


May 22

  • Community Health Improvement Plan/Community Health Assessment


May 29

  • Blair Stapleton, State Auditor’s Office

Announcement period is from 7:00 to 7:15.

Please limit announcements and comments to 2 minutes.

Hometown Helena - Thursday, May 8th, 7 a.m. @ Helena College & Live via ZOOM hosted by Pinion:

  • Lois Olson, Tri-County Firesafe Working Group

  • Brad Langsather, Open Lands Manager City of Helena

  • Leo Dutton, Sheriff

  • Kyle Sturgill-Simon, Emergency Manager LC County/COAD Member.

  • Online Meeting Instructions: Please keep your phone or microphone muted during the meeting and note that your camera may be on depending on your ZOOM settings. Please "raise your hand" at the start of the meeting if you will have an opening update or introduction.


  • In-Person Announcements: Please plan on approaching the front of the room to make announcements directly to our host so online attendees can hear. There is time at the beginning of the meeting for announcements. Please limit announcements and comments to 2 minutes.


  • View Program Recording: Hometown Helena is recorded and posted at HometownHelena.news, typically within a day.


  • Hometown Email List: This private email list is not shared. You can join or update your email information at HometownHelena.news or by clicking the button below.

The Hometown Helena Team is Jim Smith, Rick Hays, Kelly Cresswell, Emily McVey, Tom McGree, Peter Strauss, Ann Waickman, Haley McKnight and Matt Elsaesser

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