A Community Conversation

Show of hands: how many of you have recently been talking about the danger data centers pose? Or the impact of dark money in politics? Or maybe all the threats facing public lands across the West?

Keep your hands up if you’ve heard a lot of contradictory information out there about these and other important topics, either online or even from your friends and relatives.

If the answer is “yes” to either, you’re invited to attend a Community Conversation on September 20th at The Shane Center, where a panel of specialists from across the state will gather to discuss dark money, data centers, public lands, healthcare, housing costs, and voting rights.

“I can’t tell you how many people I’ve talked to over the last few months who are concerned about one or more of these topics but were having trouble sifting through all the information, all the various perspectives, trying to figure out what’s true and what’s not,” said Livingston resident Rick Lamplugh.

To try and clear things up and set the record straight, Lamplugh and Mary Strickroth gathered a group of concerned Park County residents. Together, they contacted people from around Montana to speak on each of the topics to hopefully provide everyone with the information they need to become better informed about important issues in the news here in Montana and across the country.

The event will be held in the Shane Center’s Dulcie Theater on Sunday, September 20th from 3 to 5 pm. Admission is free.

The event is not set up as a debate. Rather, each of the speakers will present what they know about each topic and then answer written questions submitted by audience members. Livingston native, journalist, author, and editor of the Montana Quarterly, Scott McMillion will serve as moderator and select the questions for each panelist.

Perhaps the biggest topic of concern to Park County residents is what’s happening to public lands. To help provide context and background on the subject, the organizers invited Mary Erickson, a retired USFS Custer/Gallatin National Forest Supervisor who now serves on the board of directors of the Montana Conservation Corps (www.mtcorps.org).

Data centers have been on everyone’s mind, with several being planned here in Montana and thousands underway across the country. To speak to that issue will be Jeff Edmunds, the founding director and CEO of Not My Bill (www.notmybill.org), a Montana-based nonprofit whose mission is to establish common-sense protections, close regulatory gaps, ensure transparency, and require that the corporations building data centers bear the full costs of their operations to protect Montana ratepayers, water resources, and our future.

With the general election just two months away, dark money in politics is a topic nearly everyone discusses, wondering how to stop it from influencing elections. Jeff Mangan, the former Montana Commissioner of Political Practice and now founder and president of the Transparent Election Initiative, will be on hand to address that topic. The Transparent Election Initiative (https://transparentelection.org) is a movement based in Helena that is focused on passing the Montana Plan, while supporting similar state-based reform efforts around the country. Its goal is to make politics more transparent, accountable, and local.

Also important in the upcoming election are voting rights. To speak to that issue will be Jane Arntzen Schumacher, president of Bozeman Area League of Women Voters. The League of Women Voters (hwww.lwv.org ) is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization working to protect and expand voting rights, and ensure everyone is represented in our democracy.

Here in Montana, housing is a hot topic as real estate and rents continue to skyrocket. Heather Grenier, president and CEO of our region’s Community Action Organization and Community Development Corporation (HRDC) will be on hand to discuss housing. Community Action Organizations (https://thehrdc.org/) focus on alleviating poverty and improving the living conditions of low-income individuals and families; while the Community Development Corporations focus on revitalizing neighborhoods and promoting economic development and engage in activities such as affordable housing development, commercial revitalization, and job creation.

Last but not least is healthcare, a topic near and dear to each of us who must grapple with insurance costs, copays, prescription drugs, and out-of-pocket expenses. To speak on that topic will be Laurie Bishop, a former state representative from Livingston who now serves as the Community Health Specialist with LiveWell49 (www.livewell49.org), an umbrella organization dedicated to embracing a culture of health in Park County through creative community solutions and effective outreach.

“We believe that Park County voters will benefit from this topic-based Community Conversation,” Strickroth said. “At the end, we hope everyone will develop a deeper understanding of these important issues and use that knowledge to make better, informed choices during the general election in November.” If you have questions for the speakers, please email them to ricklamplugh@gmail.com.