Montana cities asked to pony up $25K more apiece for public power bid

The board of directors of Montana Public Power Inc. voted unanimously Wednesday to ask its five cities to each ante up another $25,000 to fund the effort to buy NorthWestern Corp. and bring its finances out of the red.

The coalition of cities is trying to buy the electric and natural gas utility that serves 310,000 customers in western and central Montana, and convert it to a publicly owned, nonprofit company.

Bozeman, Butte-Silver Bow, Great Falls, Helena and Missoula have each kicked in $75,000 for the effort so far. When they launched the combined effort to buy the utility, each local government committed to put $100,000 into the pot. Representatives of each city government sit on the public power board.

At present, Montana Public Power has spent the $375,000 received from the five cities, and it has pending bills totaling $35,000 for consulting costs associated with the bid, said Missoula Mayor Mike Kadas, chairman of Montana Public Power Inc.

"This is the end of that authorization," Kadas said.

By CHARLES S. JOHNSON – IR State Bureau

Full Story: http://helenair.com/articles/2005/09/15/montana/a10091505_02.txt

Further Stories: Cities close in on NorthWestern Energy stock deal http://www.matr.net/article-16016.html

NorthWestern Corp. buyout: Can the Montana cities pull it off? http://www.matr.net/article-15879.html