OPINION

SLAM Festivals took place in Bozeman last weekend featuring a number of local artists. What is one way you support local artists in your community?

Martha Johnson | Atlanta, Georgia “We’ve done parties at home with someone who represents a bunch of artists. You just provide food and invite friends and everyone gets to look at and buy whatever art they like.”

Karen Jennings | Bismarck, North Dakota “We have a local print artist we support. We all had one [of his prints] in our homes, so we supported him by buying them.”

Marian Rohrer | Pasadena, California “Our community has art fairs so we like to go to the fairs and if we see something we like, we buy it.”

Jackie Pool | Henderson, Texas “We don’t have a lot of artists in our community… but when I am in Montana, I try to buy things that were made here by different artists.”

Letters to the Editor:

BSSD ballot measure in upcoming election

To the Editor:

The Big Sky School District #72 is conducting a site election this summer. A site election is an election asking the voters for permission to acquire a property that is not contiguous to current district property, simply a yes or no. We have been seeking a transportation storage facility for some time and, with a positive vote of our constituents, we would begin to more aggressively seek an off-campus location to store and maintain our bus fleet. Should we successfully find a site, the district will witness a decline in the costs associated with: warming our bus fleet every morning, maintenance as a result of busses being stored in the cold weather and a longer life from our busses. The timeline for the August election is as follows:

• Aug. 4, 2021 – Ballots mailed from Gallatin County election office • Aug. 5 – Aug. 7 – Ballots arrive in Big Sky • Aug. 24 – Ballots must be returned to the Gallatin County election office before 5 p.m.

Please visit https://bssd72.org/election for a short video explaining the election or feel free to contact Dustin Shipman at dshipman@bssd72.org with any questions. Thanks for your past and continued support.

BSRAD seeks community input

To the Editor:

I wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude for the opportunity to serve you as a board member of the Resort Area District (Resort Tax). Having grown up in our small town, I take a lot of pride and responsibility in serving you in my role. The District’s priority is our community and the well-being of its members. The Resort Tax is the primary public funding source of Big Sky and therefore it is critical that you help to inform our ongoing decision-making.

As the new District Board Chair, I would like to challenge our community to learn about Big Sky’s needs and priorities, “voice” your perspective through public comment, and stay engaged. The District hosts frequently occurring public meetings and makes important decisions on a regular basis – yet we only hear from many of you during our funding decisions in June.

Coming out of the pandemic, the engagement from our neighbors has declined. After allocating $7,057,754 to 47 projects from 26 sponsoring organizations, I was surprised to see a 50 percent decrease in responses to our post allocation community survey. Of those that did respond, nearly 40 percent indicated they didn’t attend or watch the allocation discussions, but still commented on the decisions made. As your elected officials we want to hear from you. I hope you can begin to engage more regularly and year-round, so you are informed on the context of the decisions, and we are informed on your community vision.

If you have questions, comments, or ideas to increase engagement, please feel free to email me at sarah@resorttax.org. Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you or seeing you at an upcoming District meeting.