City purchases two new plow trucks

Two new trucks will make winter driving a little easier for City of Thompson Falls crews. On Thursday, Rehbein Ford delivered two 2018 Ford F-550 trucks complete with sanders and plows.

The new trucks are versatile, city staff said Thursday. The sanding units come off and the dump sides can be removed to convert the truck into a flatbed. The sanders are wireless, and the trucks have an automatic transmission. City employee Neil Harnett said that will make it easier for the crews going up and down the hills of Thompson Falls. The new trucks also are equipped with tow packages, and the snow plows are a "v" style, providing more flexibility to operators.

City Clerk Chelsea Peterson said the total for the two trucks was $129,706. Almost half of that, $50,000, was covered by a Rural Development loan through the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The city last week also received notice that it has been nominated as an "Opportunity Zone" by Gov. Steve Bullock. Thompson Falls Mayor Mark Sheets said that the city applied for the designation, and Great West Engineering did the application at no charge. He said the designation now has to be approved by the federal government, and that being labeled an opportunity zone might help the city with other requests for grants and funding.

The City of Thompson Falls was one of 25 areas of Montana nominated by the governor for the Opportunity Zone designation.

The Federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 established a new economic development program, called Opportunity Zones, designed to encourage long-term private investment in low-income communities. The program provides a federal tax incentive for taxpayers who reinvest unrealized capital gains into "opportunity funds," which are specialized investment vehicles dedicated to certain low-income areas called "opportunity zones."

"We asked cities, towns, counties, tribes, and economic development organizations to nominate areas that are most likely to realize development which benefits communities," Gov. Bullock said in a press release. "I'm confident that the final zones I've nominated to the U.S. Treasury Department represent both high-needs communities and areas that are ripe for investment in rural and urban corners of our state."

While Montana has 106 eligible Low-Income Community Census tracts, the federal government has limited Montana to identifying just 25 of those tracts for Opportunity Zone designation.

The financing tool has the potential to direct private capital toward distressed communities and serve as a catalyst for long-term, inclusive economic development. This may include downtown revitalization, workforce development, affordable housing, infrastructure, and business startup and expansion.