Gov. Greg Gianforte has signed off on an executive order allowing the transfer of the former Montana Development Center from the Department of Public Health and Human Services to the Department of Justice.
The order, signed April 12, concerns the 48-acre north campus in Boulder. The plan is to move the Montana Highway Patrol headquarters to the city, which would bring more than 20 employees to Boulder.
To celebrate the move, a meet-and-greet with the community is scheduled for April 22, 11 a.m. at Volunteer Hall at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds.
Another component of the process, an amendment to House Bill 686, which provides the funding mechanism for the transfer, will ultimately be moved to the state’s budget bill, HB 2, according to Boulder City Council President Drew Dawson.
Dawson, along with Jefferson County Commissioner Cory Kirsch and Eric Seidensticker with the Jefferson Local Development Corporation, traveled to Helena on April 14 to speak in favor of the move before the House Finance and Claims Committee.
There was no action taken that day on HB 686, but that section will eventually come out and be moved to the budget bill as the legislative process continues, said Dawson.
The amendment called for the Department of Justice to receive $500,000 in each year of the biennium budget beginning July 1, as part of the transfer.
The section is no longer needed in HB 686 after Gianforte signed the executive order, said Dawson.
The lease on the MHP headquarters in Helena expires at the end of June. The agency has outgrown its Helena headquarters, and the former MDC administration building alone offers four times the space available in its current offices.
MHP spokesman, Sgt. Jay Nelson, said the department plans to be moved in by the end of June.
The former Montana Development Center has sat vacant for years and city and county officials have worked to find a reuse for the facility. The anticipated move by the MHP came as a surprise, albeit a positive one, and state officials saw the vacant campus as a solution to the cramped Helena headquarters.
The MHP move is to the north campus portion of the former MDC. The south campus is owned variously by Jefferson County, the Jefferson Local Development Corporation and Youth Dynamics.
