Chamber touts new businesses, asks for clarity on shelter funding; Montague subdivision residents urge city not to force hookup to municipal water

Speakers during the public comment period at the Dec. 17 Livingston City Commission meeting raised two distinct concerns: business growth and shelter funding transparency, and a water‑rights dispute in the Montague subdivision.

Chamber comments and shelter funding

Leslie Feigl, representing the Livingston Area Chamber of Commerce, told commissioners the Chamber finished the year with 45 new members and highlighted four recent ribbon cuttings. Feigl asked the commission to attend ribbon cuttings when possible and announced an additional business, a first U.S. storefront for an Italian family, expected to open on Lewis Street in January.

Feigl also asked the commission to request a clearer budget breakdown from Human Resource Development Council (HRDC) after the agency published a request for roughly $90,000 to extend homelessness/warming shelter operations by a month (March). Feigl said community donors are hesitant to give because HRDC’s operations are combined with Bozeman in reporting and the Chamber has received questions about staff wages (one figure cited by Feigl was $26 per hour) and how the additional money would be spent locally.

Montague subdivision water rights

Two residents of the Montague subdivision, identified in public comment as Malcolm and Paulette, told the commission they do not want to be forced to connect to city water because they have annual well testing records showing clean water. They said a city handout cites a Montana Code Annotated requirement to develop a plan to provide services within a “reasonable time” after annexation (staff noted that reasonable time is commonly interpreted as about five years) and that the residents’ well status recently changed in the DEQ online system from “active” to “active, pending, severed.” Residents said that change felt like a taking of water rights and asked the city to stop the water project affecting the Montague subdivision or to provide clearer, itemized accounting showing how much local shelter/utility funds are spent locally versus being pooled with other communities. City Manager Grant Gager and staff said they would supply the statutory citation and further information to the residents.

Why it matters: Montague residents said the expense of connecting to municipal water is substantial after recent sewer bills and that private water rights are part of property records and mortgages. The residents asked the commission to consider the legal and affordability consequences of a forced hookup and to press HRDC for a locality‑specific breakdown of shelter operating costs when the community asks to donate funds.

Next steps

City staff agreed to provide the residents and commissioners the specific statutory citation referenced at the meeting and indicated staff would follow up with additional information about the city’s timeline for service provision to annexed areas and about the HRDC funding questions.