Boulder’s newest resident, the Montana Highway Patrol, moved in last week.
After pushing its planned arrival from late June to early August because of delays completing renovations, the MHP officially began using the North Campus of the former Montana Developmental Center as its headquarters on Aug. 10. The facility was expected to house about 25 employees, most of whom are uniformed officers, and some are considering relocating to Boulder, Sgt. Jay Nelson, a special operations commander who is a spokesman for the Highway Patrol, told The Monitor previously.
The new facility is a vast improvement from the cramped, rented quarters in Helena that the agency used from 1996 until last week. Nelson and Col. Steve Lavin, who commands the Highway Patrol, pegged the Boulder facility’s ample storage, vast acreage of open space, and diverse array of highly configurable and versatile buildings as the site’s main draw. That, plus, “it truly is, for the most part, turnkey,” Nelson said. “Just the office space itself is a huge improvement from what we had.”
