Latest / Follow the Leighder / Cascade County's Budget, Schools, and Data Centers | Eric Hinebauch
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- Leigh/@followtheleighder: Howdy folks and welcome back to another episode of Follow the Leighder on your house me worse than and y'all I've got someone local and great for you Eric Hinebauch welcome Absolutely folks Eric Hinebauch is the County Commissioner of Cascade County here where I am in northern Montana north central Montana he's also the president of the Cascade Republican Party and they have just been in this time of misinformation and with so much going on how Eric Hinebauch, Cascade Co. Commissioner: Hi, thanks for having me. Leigh/@followtheleighder: great is it that we can invite our local officials to just come and give us a chat and talk a chat a little update. ⁓ Man the headlines have been buzzy but before we get into any of that tell us Eric you were in you had an insurance company before going into politics tell us what was that call to to take you from that world into this. Eric Hinebauch, Cascade Co. Commissioner: Well, I'm actually, I still have it. ⁓ But yeah, I came to Great Falls to go to college and then I started ⁓ an insurance agency. I'm an agent with Farmers Union Insurance. We operate under the name Heimbauch Agency. I still have that business. We have an office in Great Falls and in East Elenow, Montana. ⁓ But like I've always had an interest in local politics. ⁓ politics in general, actually. So it's just something I've always wanted to do. And it started actually during COVID, I was volunteering and helping with the school district and somebody had talked to me about running for school board. And so I actually, that was the first thing I threw my name in the hat for and ran, did not get elected. But then I ran for ⁓ city commission and I actually didn't win. ⁓ Joe McKinney and Susan Wolf. Um, I was, uh, I ran for the first time to the city commission, um, that year, which I'm trying to remember back now, 2021, I believe it was when they got elected and, uh, the day after the election, uh, Tracy, um, how was our city commissioner. She had just stepped down. And so they, I was the next highest vote getter. they appointed me. So I served on the city commission for two years and then didn't get reelected. actually, so I, my first three elections I lost. So. Um, I didn't really plan to run for the County Commission spot. Um, I just became president chair of the cascade County Republican party. Um, so I was just going to kind of, you know, get involved in that and do some work through the party, trying to find good candidates and make sure we have good elected officials around cascade County. When I got approached about the County Commission position. So ran ran in 2024 for that had a real hard, real challenging primary against an incumbent. then actually in the general election, I was up against a former county commissioner who had been in the position. it was a, it was a lot of work and I learned a lot that campaign kind of, I had some people come around me that helped me really get organized and understand the things you need to do to run a successful campaign. So yeah, now I'm here. So first, first year just wrapped up year one as a county commissioner. So Leigh/@followtheleighder: Well, that's huge. And I appreciate your dedication to the call to serve and clearly experience like even just being around our public schools during COVID. ⁓ They wanted you to go for school board, but that didn't work out. talk about that experience of being part of the solution and the chaos of that COVID era and public schools. Eric Hinebauch, Cascade Co. Commissioner: Yeah, like I just, ⁓ a good friend of mine works in the school district and ⁓ she asked me to volunteer and help out. And it was just really eye opening because I was helping, like, I don't think people remember, but like when we first like did the stay at home thing, ⁓ we had to get all the like homework packets and stuff out to the kids. So like they were having volunteers like ⁓ run those around in the neighborhood. So like I, ⁓ I had like a whole neighborhood I was delivering school packets to and stuff. And it was just really eye-opening to see the different demographics we have in Great Falls and some of the challenges that some kids face. And I'm just like, wow, and just really eye-opening and just how important it is for us to make sure we support our public schools and make sure they have the resources they need. they serve such a wide swath of, well, every. demographic of our community. Leigh/@followtheleighder: ⁓ and that's, I mean, like you said, there's such a demographic. ⁓ Did you see necessarily like a wealth disparity or was it like family situation? Eric Hinebauch, Cascade Co. Commissioner: Oh, yeah, absolutely. There was definitely a wealth disparity. I, I don't think it's any surprise. The Longfellow school district, our school area is very low income. And so like you really just was right in your face. Like these are the conditions kids come home to. This, you know, how like how challenging is this for a kid to learn in in that kind of environment? You know, so yeah, I definitely saw the wealth gap in the difference. Leigh/@followtheleighder: And what, mean, just even through your knowledge of working with the county and with our schools, like how hard is it for us to recruit and retain teachers? Eric Hinebauch, Cascade Co. Commissioner: Yep, extremely, extremely hard. ⁓ I'm involved with a key kids education. Yes. And they do it. They help with an event every year just, just for teacher recruitment. And so it's, I don't think it's going away anytime soon. And I think it's in more, even just beyond education, healthcare, even at the county level, even at this city in the county level, like I moved to great falls in 2004. you know, um, started my career in like 2010, I think it was 10 or 11. And, uh, I remember the city and county jobs, like huge hiring pools, like those are the jobs you wanted. had a pension, good health insurance benefits, you know, like it was hard to get a job there. And that was 15, 16 years ago. And now our hiring pools are significantly reduced. It's hard to find qualified people, quality employees. It's just, It's, I can't my finger on it and I don't know the solution. I know that we have to continue to work with, you know, our community partners, our local governments, and just try to collaborate to figure it out and keep throwing stuff, see what sticks on the wall, but ⁓ it's definitely a challenge. Leigh/@followtheleighder: And thank you for your service towards that. I also volunteer at Longfellow. I read to kids and there's been times where, you know, I've been doing this for a few years. I have a few bonds with kids and they've told me things about their home life and I've had to talk to about it with teachers. And then you get that frustrating like, oh, we're aware or like it and you're and it's just like, you know, there's already a process going on or something and you're just like. This is so massive and it's so communal. here in Montana especially, and ⁓ very Catholic, we have a lot of Catholic private schools, is there talk at all at county level of school vouchers or anything? Eric Hinebauch, Cascade Co. Commissioner: That's not really an issue that we deal with. mean, that's definitely a legislative issue that comes up every session, it seems like, lately. And I know there's been some legislation that passed with this public charter school, like what they're doing with ⁓ the core school they're doing at Great Ville's public school. Sorry, I'm forgetting which elementary it's at. ⁓ Yeah, it's a hot topic in the Republican Party right now. There's definitely two sides to that issue within our party. Leigh/@followtheleighder: And that's kind of also the political landscape I've talked about quite a bit with my guests is it does feel like everything got shaken up and like thrown. so there's division on so many sides. There's so many factions. And so it's just an interesting, it's just an interesting time. And it's very important for us to continue conversation because it's a lot of people don't know what they. themselves now so I wouldn't be surprised if there were more independent folks or just independent ideas or things going on. When you talked about ⁓ you said that you moved here for Great Falls do you take time are you a hunter or an angler or just an outdoorsy person at all? Eric Hinebauch, Cascade Co. Commissioner: Um, yeah, I, I like to raft. I, I, I grew up, I grew up on a farm in near Chinook, Montana. So about 120 miles north of here. So I grew up hunting and, and, uh, grew up, grandpa used to take us fishing all the time, but like, I really enjoy rafting and, uh, it's a great, it's a great way to get out and see Montana. So, and I think Cascade has a lot of fun places to go. Belt Creek's one of my favorite spots to raft. So yeah, it's, it's, uh, we're lucky. But we are. Leigh/@followtheleighder: And ⁓ there have been here in Great Falls, talking about here we have the Lewis and Clark ⁓ Interpretive Center. Lewis and Clark is a big part of Great Falls' culture and history and ⁓ also very much associated with the river that you moved to wrap. ⁓ There has been just, again, at that county level, So many folks are either part of the Forest Service or they're part of the VA or they work for nonprofit, but there's been quite a number of folks that are struggling financially. I didn't know, particularly when it comes to some of the cuts, like how have you heard from your constituents? How are they doing? What's going on? Eric Hinebauch, Cascade Co. Commissioner: Well, I mean, as far as cuts impacting the county, we've felt it at the county government level, like our health department, our disaster and emergency services department. Those are two good examples of ones that have a lot of federal grants and ⁓ pass-through money. So that's definitely been a huge, huge topic for us this last calendar year with the budget. So we've had to make some cuts that haven't been easy. ⁓ that's the way I've really gotten up close view of it from the county level. As far as like constituents in Gray Falls and Cascade County, I mean, I think everybody's feeling things are a little bit more expensive. The things we can do to try to help that is hopefully, you know, operate a conservative budget so that property taxes stay under control and just continue to work towards solutions to kind of keep those at least predictable and steady instead of these big swings that we we had over the last five years. Leigh/@followtheleighder: Well, and how well those funding cuts, like you said, the county level, how will they impact health care for not health care? said at the public health level, but how will that show up in our county? Would that be less events or less services? Eric Hinebauch, Cascade Co. Commissioner: with the cuts we are experiencing at the county level that impact the city county health department are gonna, it's yet to be seen, but it's gonna end up with some of the grant funded services, I think reducing or I don't know if all I'll go, I haven't seen one that where it's gonna go away. I just have seen a reduction in funding. Another department I forgot to mention is our aging services department. We're seeing some impacts there too. like that's, mean, meals on wheels here in Cascade County serves, I can't remember the number off the top of my head, but it's, I think it's several hundred seniors. So, you know, any, any seismic shift in the funding there, I mean, it's going to have a big impact. So. Leigh/@followtheleighder: It's just, it's extraordinary to see and hear ⁓ the impacts on rural folks and how we're just coming together over and over is what I'm saying. A lot more community coming together for mutual aid or drives or just different ways. ⁓ you talked about, sorry, I wrote down my handwriting. So you talked about that this was your first year in office. ⁓ running on the campaign trail and actually being an elected official are wildly different things. What are some things that you found to be challenging in your first year? Eric Hinebauch, Cascade Co. Commissioner: ⁓ The biggest thing is just like, I'm used to owning my own business and, you know, making decisions like you see a problem and you can make a decision fairly quickly. And with the county, know, here's a good example. Like I get frustrated with the floodplain. The floodplain in Cascade County, you know, there's a, we have a lot of rivers here. we have a lot of floodplain rules on where people can build and what kind of permit they can have. all this kind of stuff. I'm like, this is really frustrating. Like this takes a long time to, you know, get from a plan to action in that. And, and that's what I have to get used to. And the one thing you always have to remind yourself when it comes to local government or government in general is the reason we have so many of these rules in places, because we want to make sure the public is notified and understand this. Like anytime there's a change for zoning, or a subdivision plan, there's all these requirements that have to be 45 day notice, public hearings, all these steps. And a lot of people are like, ⁓ that's so slow. We just want to get going and start building. like it's there for a reason. It's to make sure the public has an opportunity to be involved in the process. So they have a say in their community. And even I, elected official, get frustrated with it sometimes, but I understand the intent of it. Are there things that we can tweak probably and advocate for at the legislative level where we can make things run a little bit more efficiently, maybe as times have changed and we communicate differently? Sure. But like the intent of it is to make sure that the public can weigh in and be involved in the decisions of the community. Leigh/@followtheleighder: Absolutely, and to add on to that, my house is now, but it was in county, but not part of the city. And in order for, I had some septic issue, I was on septic and I had to get on city sewage. But in that process, I didn't have, I wasn't able to run water properly in my house for like eight months. And it was a whole thing. And a lot of it was because of. the public hearing notice that you're talking about. was like, oh, you have to go in front of the city. No, neighborhood council twice and the city twice. And you have to post your address in the newspaper for X amount of days. Meanwhile, I live alone and I don't want my address posted. Like it was a very, there's so much like legislation that is important and we have to have it for a reason, but there have got to be opportunities where. where it doesn't need to be this regulated, it shouldn't be. I feel like if the neighborhood council approved of me, should have been like a rubber stamp for this. The neighbors were like, no, she's cool. Well, let's answer. And then the city's like, OK, you vouch for her. And then we move like that. Eric Hinebauch, Cascade Co. Commissioner: I mean, that'd be nice if we could just, yeah. Yeah, like you my common sense had that makes yeah, let's go Leigh/@followtheleighder: Okay, and then like why did that? was just, and these are just, and this isn't necessarily gatefalls or cascade specific, it's a lot of these type things that trip people up and get people frustrated and then say the government is overblown and overregulated and blah and then we lose the plot. So again, we want a government that works for the people and in doing working for the people and letting them know and like all these different steps like. Eric Hinebauch, Cascade Co. Commissioner: No, just, just that's a great example. Like, but it would be nice if we could sit down and figure out how can we make this get move along a little quicker. I definitely, when you sit down and like, especially have conversations with our county attorney about sort of like we just, in fact, this morning we had, we had ⁓ a meeting, a special meeting about Madison food park. had gotten a permit extended. that was appealed and I mean, I'm thankful for processes like that when it comes to a project like that, because that's a huge project that would have a huge impact on this community. So I think the community needs to have ample opportunity to weigh in on it. But yeah, it definitely gets frustrating, especially for your situation. Leigh/@followtheleighder: Well, and then and then also just I'm curious because like you like having community partners, particularly when the economy is such and so many cuts and all the things that's going on. One of the things I was was just thinking about it or how are we like there are a few parts that maybe don't have ramps for strollers or wheelchairs to like start into the sidewalk and I was like how quickly can we just get like the government to say yes, if other groups can coordinate like free concrete or pouring, if and or how can we subsidize that? But again. Eric Hinebauch, Cascade Co. Commissioner: Yeah, I used to, used to live on fourth Avenue North, which is the historic part of great falls. And I walk up and down that quite a bit. And there's a lot of those curbs on the blocks have been made much more accessible, but a lot of them are the whole, I mean, you could never get a wheelchair up them, but like, that's the other thing I've learned is like, for every one of those corners that they got to like redo, it's gotta be engineered. And there's this whole process. It's gotta be. for liability for the city. So it just takes time just to get it to the concrete part. And that's another thing I've been frustrated by. we've been, so this, your neighbor across the way here has been a big topic in the county. We have some squatter issues up here on this property and just figuring out how we can develop that and the process it takes because in order for some of the landowners up there to build a house, they have to get the whole thing engineered Otherwise it'll flood down here if we start to pave streets and there's water flow issues. So it's frustrating. We have to go through all these steps. But then when you think about it long-term and you don't make decisions on the 20 year scale, like what if we continue to expand? What does that impact look like for the neighbors below? mean, it's just some of those things are a necessary evil, unfortunately. Leigh/@followtheleighder: What does that area over there look like right now? Like in terms of what the county is? it? It's not being, I don't see any flags. I don't know that it'll be developed any time. Eric Hinebauch, Cascade Co. Commissioner: Yeah, Mount Royal has been a big topic, at least in the County Commission Office. I've had a lot of citizens complaining about just like the squatter issue up there. there's, seems to me that there's some, possibly some illegal activity going on up on the lot. So like we've been meeting with the sheriff and the planning department and just trying to like make sure those citizens know all the avenues they can use to... Make sure it's safe up here. Leigh/@followtheleighder: So does that look like we're like squatters? mean, like long-term, does that look like removal? it look like, cause it's county land, how the city's not involved in it much. Eric Hinebauch, Cascade Co. Commissioner: No, it's yeah, it's not annexing the city. So it's it's a county issue and there's there's There's more I've learned more than I wanted to on this whole deal, but there's like there's community decay ordinance They come into effect for all the you know, the trash and the stuff piling up up there There's a junk vehicle rules where you can remove, you know vehicles that just pile up and obstruct roadways There's obviously the sheriff's office can be involved when it involves trespassing or illegal drug use or anything else that might be going on. like, yeah, the county is involved in it in a lot of different ways. Leigh/@followtheleighder: Yeah, now that'll be interesting because then on the other side is the little shell is planning to develop. So it looks like that whole section is going to be developed and then. Eric Hinebauch, Cascade Co. Commissioner: Oh, this, yeah, from all the way out at the intersection of 6th Street and Stuckey back into town, I think some of will get developed. And then everything to the east, up there towards Eagles Crossing, there's going to be a lot of development. Leigh/@followtheleighder: Does that look like five year, 10 years, you 20 years? Eric Hinebauch, Cascade Co. Commissioner: I mean, I think it's just going to continue incrementally for at least 20 years. 6th Street right here in front of your house is going to be a major discussion. Like what does this artery look like in the next 10, 15 years? Because this is one of the major ins and outs from this area up here. Leigh/@followtheleighder: is. And there's also no sidewalk and it's a very dangerous road. And I it's gonna be Eric Hinebauch, Cascade Co. Commissioner: Those are all the things that are like the county and the city and the state of Montana are you have to come together on and try to figure out a plan. You know, like I remember on the city commission, we had a transportation meeting with MET and they were talking about, you know, putting a, you know, an artery out there in the field where the houses aren't even built yet and wrapping it around Stuckey. You know, those are all the conversations that we need to have as we grow. And as we have big projects like the Sentinel coming to town and Calumet, you know, continuing to grow and other developments that are happening. Leigh/@followtheleighder: Well, that's we actually did a tour of Calumet a few weeks ago. It's super. didn't realize that they were like a national Leighder in clean energy production or how clean their system is over there. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, because I guess when I'm asking about the time horizon for the development here and over there as well, like you said, ⁓ Sentinel and all sorts, there's also the issue of public safety. how are we gonna keep all folks safe? Because Great Falls keeps spreading out and we just don't have the force to respond and keep us safe. So what are the discussions around public safety? Eric Hinebauch, Cascade Co. Commissioner: Well, from the county level, like we're just making sure that our sheriff's office has the resources they need. Our detention center is like something that's really in the forefront right now, because it's just, it's a really expensive operation to run. So we're just, we're really diving into it, trying to figure out what, does this look like in 10, 15, 20 years and how do we make sure it's sustainable? Because we rely on a lot of federal contracts, well, federal state. different agency contracts to house, you know, detainees up there until they get, you know, see their court date or they get sentenced or, you know, wherever they ultimately end up. And that's a nice revenue stream for us, but it's just, it's unpredictable. And we have to really operate that detention center at high capacity just to make budget. So it'd be nice. for us just to be able to only focus on the needs of Cascade County. That would be the ideal situation, but that's gonna require a big chunk of funding to make that sustainable in the long term. So those are the discussions we're having right now. Like what does this look like? Right now we have a pretty high percentage of contract bids, what I call them, for these other agencies, whether it's the feds or the BIA or the state. I'd like to see that number a little lower. You're always going to have a little bit of it because we have the federal courthouse here. And so they're going to want to be able to, you know, bring somebody because that federal courthouse serves a huge chunk of Eastern Montana all the way to like the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, which is several hundred miles away. Yeah. So Leigh/@followtheleighder: it is. Now it's it's, it was so our hospital, our healthcare also serves such a huge. And so when we talk about improving public safety, healthcare education, it's it's also, we're also the hub of other areas around. ⁓ It's, it's, it's quite nice to leave Great Falls and lose cell service for sure. But also, then you realize, like, Great Falls has to be well equipped, because we are the resource center. Yeah. Eric Hinebauch, Cascade Co. Commissioner: That's really true. Leigh/@followtheleighder: ⁓ And so we need a functioning system. I'll edit this in just a second. It's fine. just, floodplain with five years. also, okay, public safety. ⁓ okay. So on this detention center and when local communities get entangled with state and federal goals, like you said, it gets frustrating. Then we're not able to address our own needs. It just gets complex. Can you tell us from a county level, ⁓ is there anything particularly with ICE that Cascade County folks should know or immigration? Eric Hinebauch, Cascade Co. Commissioner: We have a contract with the U S marshals and the U S marshal contract encompasses a lot of federal agencies. So yes, we do have ice detainees that pass through our detention center and get held here for, know, until they go to the next place. Isn't it? It's typically not a long-term situation, but, ⁓ I know there's been a lot. We've had a lot of, ⁓ citizens getting them, you know, contacting us concerned about that. And we, we, there is. There is an opportunity for, you know, local detention centers like ours to have a direct contract with ICE. We do not have one of those currently. We're just operating under the current US and Marshall's contract, which we've had in place for a really long, over a decade. I've looked back through all the contracts and it's been in place for quite some time. And ⁓ as it sits right now, we don't have a direct contract with ICE, but we do see some of those detainees come in. Leigh/@followtheleighder: And yeah, and then the main concern is just, know, I don't want to say it, is humane treatment and wanting to make sure that when we, we, meaning taxpayer and our tax paid public safety folks are detaining some of these foreigners, I hope is that there's oversight and at least humane treatment and clarity. Can you speak on that? Eric Hinebauch, Cascade Co. Commissioner: That's a big issue for us. And there has been some talk of us, you know, having a discussion with ice about a contract, but we have some big concerns about liability. Like we don't want to get in middle of this mess on us getting sued because of an ice detainee. Like that's, but we don't want, we don't, we don't, can't afford that. We don't have time to deal with that. Like, so it needs to be pretty laid out and right now we're just, we're basically just a holding facility until they, go somewhere else. There are contracts out there where like local law enforcement can work with ICE and our sheriff and the current County Commission have that's not something we want to be dealing with. We I mean we're happy to you know under the federal contract act as a holding operation but that's it. Leigh/@followtheleighder: And that's something that I've been thinking about with folks that, ⁓ thank you. Well, and then, that, there are so many towns, I wanna, for just a second, there are so many towns across the United States that because of private detention centers, they're now brought into these national dramas and chaos ⁓ and a lot of privatized detention, not just with ICE specifically, but also, The detention centers that are just they were built, they were subsidized maybe by the local people and then they're sitting empty like there's so many questions that people have to deal with like answer when we start going down this route and it's Eric Hinebauch, Cascade Co. Commissioner: In a perfect world, be nice if we could just use it for our needs here in Cascade County. And then we'd have a little bit of contract bids. Because we have the federal courthouse, it makes sense. But other than that, that would be the perfect world. But until we can figure out our budget needs, we kind of have to rely on those contracts. like I said, I've had a lot of discussions with citizens. This is so we can keep this facility. open so we have a facility because if we didn't have a facility in a community like ours it would be a mess you know so Leigh/@followtheleighder: And then again, going back to public safety and needing more or just addressing public safety, what kinds of challenges, what crimes are you seeing quite a bit here in Great Falls or Cascade? Eric Hinebauch, Cascade Co. Commissioner: I think the biggest thing in Cascade County, and I'm not an expert on this by any means, but I think it's just, you know, your misdemeanor theft and burglary. Like there's just a lot of that. I remember that from like the city commission. Like there's a lot of that and a lot of it goes unsolved because our resources are spread thin. You know, there's higher priority ⁓ cases, but as far as like specific areas of crime, I'm, I, be honest, I don't have those. Leigh/@followtheleighder: No, that's okay. and no one's supposed to get, just like, ⁓ you know, we are a mix of rural and urban. So like I was expecting something like petty burglary, but then sometimes you also get some really interesting, horrifying ⁓ animal rights type issues too. Eric Hinebauch, Cascade Co. Commissioner: I don't think we have a high volume of those, it seems like we have a high profile one those every couple of years. like, what's with people and hoarding animals? That's expensive for us too. We have to figure out where we're to place all these animals. It just takes a lot of resources when we have one of those cases and it seems like we have one every year or so. Leigh/@followtheleighder: And I was following a case recently and like people were so upset, there was some people were upset because they felt the punishment didn't match the crime or something like they wanted a strong eye. But like also in relation, she would not have gotten more in trouble for that had it been a human. It was like there's so when you get into animal and property and then also jailing, like jailings expense and like. Eric Hinebauch, Cascade Co. Commissioner: It is expensive. Leigh/@followtheleighder: So I appreciate you going right back to working with the schools because it's schools where you can see those problems start and then they, as humans get older, they start doing crime. Eric Hinebauch, Cascade Co. Commissioner: ⁓ Yep. Early investment could probably save you a lot of money in the long run. Leigh/@followtheleighder: You mentioned the Sentinel project. ⁓ Can you tell us a little bit about what that is and the relationship between the county and the military? Eric Hinebauch, Cascade Co. Commissioner: Yep. So it's the, we have a missile field here and I think we, it's 150 missiles in our missile field all over North central Montana. You know, goes all the way from east of Lewistown, south to Harlaton. And there's talk that we might be opening up the old decommissioned missile field up towards Conrad. So it's a big swath and it goes all the way to the Rocky mountain front. Leigh/@followtheleighder: Just a missile field? Eric Hinebauch, Cascade Co. Commissioner: Yeah, there's holes in the ground with the missiles and they're upgrading those, they're changing out that system. Leigh/@followtheleighder: all of that though, that just needs to be like untouched government land that you can't develop on or buy proper I'm trying to like, like, how are we gonna have missile fields and then also have Eric Hinebauch, Cascade Co. Commissioner: We have, we, they are there, they exist. Leigh/@followtheleighder: No, no, no. So I know that they're already there. But I mean, like, as we're about development and expansion of, like, maybe neighborhoods or schools or something, like, where would that fit in with? ⁓ Eric Hinebauch, Cascade Co. Commissioner: Yeah, most of this is in rural agricultural land. there's nothing, there's not like, the closest hole to Great Falls, I think is probably right out here in like the Cascade area or something. It's fairly rural agricultural land. And like I said, all those sites are, they have been in the possession of the Air Force for 50, 60 years. But yeah, anyways, that's going to be a big project. It's going to be busy. They're already starting a lot of construction on base this year. that's in the billions of dollars, you know, so this whole project is, is massive and it's going to last for 10 years. So I think making sure we're ready for that influx of people. Cause I don't know if you were here a couple of years ago when Calumet had a whole bunch of, I think they had about six, 700 employees in town for three or four months. And you could tell You could just tell there's more traffic. Like I was in the city commission on the time there was more uptick in the police, the police response to calls just cause more human beings, more people, you know, having a few beers and making a bad decision or something, you know. Leigh/@followtheleighder: Yeah, and that's funny too, ⁓ what, not necessarily with Sentinel, and maybe that could bring in work, but ⁓ what does the workforce and labor look like right now with Cascade County? Eric Hinebauch, Cascade Co. Commissioner: for that project or just in general? I think that ⁓ we need more, we need to grow our labor force. And I think everybody I talked to is like looking for help and they can't find it. So I think this just goes back to like what I said about the schools and the city and the county. think it's across the board. People are struggling to find the workforce they need. So, but. Leigh/@followtheleighder: in general, are folks doing? Well, and that leads us into, you know, these AI data centers. We've already talked about the military. There's been a caught up in a noise ⁓ from the DOD, DOW, whatever you want to call it now, about using AI for military reasons. We have a military base, AI data centers. Like, what have you heard about AI data centers coming to Cascade County? And what does that look like? Eric Hinebauch, Cascade Co. Commissioner: I think they are coming. There's nothing specific like in the works right now. We had the one big proposal, they've, from what I understand, they've pulled out, but I think they're going to be here eventually. And I think the number one concern for me for data centers is energy, is making sure that they don't have a negative impact on us as consumers of energy in Montana. But ⁓ I think... As I've been following it and I'm not an expert on this, just, me paying attention to the news and taking a little bit more of a deeper dive into it. Just when I have time, they're going to have to have their own power source on these campuses. So I think even there was even mentioned in the state of the union the other night about data centers and having their own power sources. And I think that's, I'm glad to hear that. I hope that's the policy and I hope that's the standard because that's the biggest concern for me. been some talk on water, having a big impact on water, but from everything I've researched in, actually Lone Bro here in town, they do a lot of construction on data centers and I've visited with some of their guys. And the data centers are building now, I think maybe a few years ago they didn't quite have it figured out yet, but now these are closed loop systems. They do take a lot of water up front just to like fill them and flush them and get them started. But after that, don't. I don't think it's as high use as what's being put out there on Facebook that I've seen. Leigh/@followtheleighder: Yeah, and that's, that's the, and even I was talking about this with someone else, like, whatever this looks, it almost looks