Flying high in Big Sky Country - Gallatin Field and Venus Catering in Bozeman, Montana are busy catering to the wealthy
| April 14, 2008 |  View for printing |
When Gallatin Field General Manager Ted Mathis began working at the airport in 1981, there were 29 hangars for private planes.
Today, there are 165, including the 17 new ones built last year.
When it comes to expensive toys, private planes are right up there. A modest model costs about the same as a new diesel pickup, around $50,000, and renting one of those new hangar spaces can cost hundreds of dollars a month. And then there’s the insurance and fuel.
Clearly, a lot of people in the Gallatin Valley have a lot of disposable income.
By SCOTT McMILLION Chronicle Staff Writer
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Catering to the wealthy
By SCOTT McMILLION Chronicle Staff Writer
Suz Bowles and Laurie Rolsma work hard. During the week, the owners of Venus Catering http://www.caterwithvenus.com/ feed lunch to the middle-schoolers at Headwaters Academy and provide dinner to a nearby fraternity house. They also cater special events.
But about half of their business comes from the nation’s financial elite, the passengers of private jets at Gallatin Field, along with their pilots and crews.
Unlike commercial jet travelers, those people don’t have to content themselves with a bag of peanuts or some stale crackers, thanks to the jolly ladies of Venus.
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Many struggle in shadow of wealth
By SCOTT McMILLION Chronicle Staff Writer
For Montana’s nonprofit sector, the influx of wealthy people, especially part-time residents, is a blade that cuts both ways.
“People are making too much for any kind of public assistance, but they’re not making” enough to afford the cost of living in the Gallatin Valley. Having them here can carve access into new funding, expertise and opportunity for some groups. But their presence can also chop away at the underpinnings that make communities and ecosystems work.
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