Why only two towns submitted proposals for an eastern Montana mental health facility

The Gianforte administration’s monthslong effort to find an eastern Montana location for a new mental health facility drew official interest from just two towns: Hardin and Miles City.

The state’s deadline for cities to register interest was Nov. 10. According to a draft timeline from the Board of Investments, the state development authority spearheading the process, site tours are scheduled for next week, and BOI is aiming to submit a final location proposal to Gov. Greg Gianforte’s office before Thanksgiving.

But it’s unclear if either of the two locations in southeastern Montana is ideal for the state to build, staff and operate the 32-bed facility meant to rehabilitate mentally ill patients involved with the criminal justice system.

The state’s process for choosing a location abruptly rerouted in September to offer interested cities and towns a chance to file site proposals. That change came after BOI officials’ initial site explorations in Billings, the state’s largest city and workforce pool, garnered significant blowback. Some local officials, including Yellowstone County commissioners, griped that the state had appeared to decide — rather than request — that Billings would host the new facility.

 Billings is now notably absent from the very short list of towns that raised their hands for consideration. In a Nov. 5 letter to the Board of Investments and the head of the state health department, outgoing Billings Mayor Bill Cole emphasized the city’s support for adding services that could also help local residents. But he also argued that the ball is in the state’s court.

“[A]lthough we recognize the need for a forensic facility in eastern Montana as a general matter, Billings is not prepared at this time to submit a formal ‘proposal’ asking that such a facility be located here. This is a state project, not a city project. If the city were to submit an application and actively advocate for it, that would suggest a level of understanding, confidence, and commitment that simply does not exist at the present time,” the letter said.

Another community that did not submit a proposal for the state’s project is Laurel, a town of roughly 7,200 about 18 miles west of Billings. In a late-October City Council meeting, officials in Laurel indicated that they had been approached by officials from the Board of Investments months ago about a possible site location. But responding to the state’s request for proposals did not make sense for Laurel, city staff said, seeing as the town does not have a parcel of land within its limits that meets the state’s needs.

“From my understanding, they wanted an invitation from the community. And as a municipality, from the city of Laurel, we had no land that would have been able to meet it,” said Kurt Markegard, the city’s planning director, in an interview with MTFP. 

Markegard added that the city has an annexation policy for parcels of land that border the city, allowing their owners to be linked to city water and sewer services if they so desire. 

“They approach the City Council. It doesn’t go the other way,” Markegard said, adding that the timeline to change any city ordinances or rules is much longer than the weekslong span that towns had for submitting site proposals to the governor’s administration.

In the October meeting with City Council members, Markegard hinted at some efforts to unify eastern Montana cities against the state’s approach.

“I have a message from Bill Cole, and I’d like to read that into the record,” Markegard said. “‘It’s very simple. This means our best option is for all the potential eastern Montana communities — Billings, Laurel, Columbus, Hardin — to say none of them are going to submit an application on this timeline.’ So that is from the mayor of Billings, Bill Cole.”

Cole did not respond to questions about that message from MTFP. 

Markegard also declined to elaborate on Cole’s message when asked about it by MTFP, saying he only wanted to ensure that City Council members were apprised of all the information he had. But Markegard said that, generally, Laurel and Billings have had similar experiences with the state’s outreach so far.

“We haven’t been asked to participate. I think that’s the issue,” Markegard said. Cole, he added, “wanted the same thing, which was a conversation.”

A spokesperson for Gianforte’s office did not respond to a question Thursday about whether the state’s search for potential sites would be limited to those that filed official proposals.