Calumet Montana Refining is conducting an evacuation drill at 11:30 a.m. on Nov. 12. The drill is expected to last about one hour. Community members may hear the whistle used in this drill with a series of blasts and one long blast, but should not be alarmed. “This is only a drill exercise and there is no emergency,” according to a Calumet
Read more
Three Great Falls police officers and three firefighters were injured in three separate incidents overnight, according to an Oct. 19 post from Great Falls Police and Great Falls Fire Rescue. Three firefighters and one police officer were struck by a vehicle while responding to a domestic disturbance on the east end of town. During a press conference Saturday afternoon, GFPD
Read more
City Commissioners will consider approving a $301,004.41 contract during their Oct. 15 meeting with Central Square/Zuercher Technologies for the replacement of call processing equipment at the Great Falls Emergency Communication 911 Dispatch Center. The current equipment, Positron VIPER, was approaching its replacement date at the city’s dispatch center and city staff released a request for proposals to explore replacements and
Read more
Alluvion Health has been awarded $237,000 from the Health Resource Service Administration that the agency will use to expand the availability of Medication Assisted Treatment, or MAT, services to combat opioid addiction. The funding will be used to train additional providers so that they can prescribe Suboxone, a medication that blocks the effects of opioids so a patient can’t get
Read more
Next week, Cascade County Commissioners will consider approving a contract for the purchase of Zeke, a German Shepherd/Belgian Malinois drug detection dog. The cost of the dog is $8,500 and will be funded through the drug forfeiture fund of the Cascade County Sheriff’s Office. Deputy Kasey Whitsitt has been selected as the dog’s handler and she’ll be training in Tennessee
Read more
Calumet Montana Refining will be conducting a drill this week to prepare plant personnel to respond quickly and effectively to an unanticipated release. It’s routine training that won’t have an adverse impact on the environment, community or citizens, according to a Calumet release. As part of the drill, residents may notice booms deployed on the river near Giant Springs Park. Some signage
Read more
Gov. Steve Bullock issued an executive order declaring an emergency in Montana due to the early season storm. Areas hit hardest include Cascade, Flathead, Glacier, Lake, Lewis and Clark, Lincoln, Pondera and Teton counties and the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. The Blackfeet Indian Reservation, Glacier County, and Pondera County have issued local emergency declarations. “With an unprecedented winter storm throwing our state
Read more
September is National Preparedness Month, by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to promote family and community disaster and emergency planning now and throughout the year. The 2019 theme is “Prepared, Not Scared.” You can find a number of emergency preparedness resources on the Ready.gov site. This year, The Electric has teamed with the Business Improvement District and NeighborWorks Great Falls to
Read more
The community came together again this year to remember those killed on Sept. 11, 2001. Despite cloudy skies, cooler temps and intermittent rain, fire fighters, law enforcement and medical responders gathered with community members at Great Falls Fire Rescue Station No. 1. GFFR Chief Steve Hester said that 18 years later he remembers what he was doing the day of the
Read more
City Commissioners voted unanimously last week to approve the annexation of 2.775 acres into the city for the development of a Love’s Travel Stop and Country Stores. The annexed parcels will be part of a larger development area that includes two parcels already in the city limits that are owned by the Great Falls International Airport Authority. The development will
Read more