The Blaine County Commission is in the midst or working on updating the 2017 Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). This is a very important that will greatly affect the services provided to the people of Blaine County.

The purpose of the CIP being worked on by the Blaine County Commission is to prioritize Capital Improvements throughout the county such as roads, bridges, buildings as well as equipment. The list goes a step further by including a schedule that includes completion dates for identified projects as well as options to determine funding for construction or acquisition.

As such input from county residents is critical in determining what the counties priorities are and to the overall success of the CIP.

Part of the planning process is informing residents with up to date information about what facilities and services are in the most need of repairs and/or improvements that are also the most economical.

Determining the county needs will help the Blaine County Commission to develop a budget with the most effective application of funds. It will also work to avoid situations where repairs or expenditures become an emergency.

Another important part of the CIP is maintaining a baseline for how funds are spent and where priorities lie when the Blaine County Commissioners or key Blaine County Personnel change positions, leave or are replaced by someone else. Thus the CIP will remain a constant guide for future staff to use.

Updating the plan is something the Blaine County Commission certainly does not want to do alone based solely on their knowledge. Citizens of Blaine County are being asked to provide input to the Commission in this matter.

In gathering this information the Commission will utilize a number of different tools. The first will be a project website that a resident can log into.

The project website will provide residents with an easy way to quickly access information about a particular project, including meeting schedules, project status and draft documents.

The site will also include a survey that a resident can look over and fill out. The survey includes a number of projects, needs and service that a resident prioritize. The survey is very thorough covering everything from the courthouse to airports ambulance, volunteer fire departments as well as all the county departments, including Road and Bridge.

The site is pretty simple to navigate and use. A web map application is included on the site and shows locations of the identified department priorities and information on the priorities. The website is also linked to our newly updated website and has some information along with links to the survey, map application and the 2017 CIP.

Public Survey - https://arcg.is/1OS5yr0

Map application - https://arcg.is/1rivTS

Website - https://blainecounty-mt.gov/cip/

In addition the Blaine County Commission will have a booth set up at the Blaine County Fair, August 11-14. The booth will be in the Blaine County Fairgrounds Commercial Building and will be gathering public input. The booth will include a list of all the projects available for the public to review and rank based on their preferences.

Please contact Savannah Wendeln at Blaine County via email: SWendeln@blainecounty-mt.gov or residents can contact the Commissioners at 1-406-357-3250.