“This has been tough work to get done,” City Councilor Drew Dawson said last month. He was referring to the two-year-long effort to plan the spending of a half-million dollars that could shape Boulder’s future.
In 2017, the Montana State Legislature approved the $500,000 Boulder Development Fund to support economic development in the wake of the closure of the Montana Developmental Center. The Boulder Development Fund Board, a volunteer group, was formed to administer the money.
June 30 was the deadline for the submission and approval of Fund projects — and in fact, the last few have just been approved by the Montana Department of Commerce. Together, the 15 initiatives reflect a broad range of activities, many of them described in the Downtown Master Plan produced last year.
