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Governor gets stormy reception in Deer Lodge

ANACONDA — When the Martz Administration brought the govern ment to the people of Deer Lodge Wednesday, a consistent concern echoed
throughout the town, surfac ing in a variety of guises: econom ics.

By Vera Haffey, of The Montana Standard

Martz proclaimed the town Capital for a Day, as part of a cam paign to connect with constituents statewide.

After a whirlwind tour of the town and businesses, the governor, Lt. Gov. Karl Ohs and cabinet mem bers gathered in a crowded dining room at the
Broken Arrow Steakhouse. There, a heated exchange preceded a discussion about the closure of the Brown School, which locked its doors only
minutes earlier, leaving some 30 employees out of work.

“ You’re probably mad at each one of us,” Martz said, referring to gov ernment officials seated close by. But the Brown School controversy began
prior to her taking office, she reminded the crowd.

“ I didn’t create it, but I’ll take the rap for it, because that’s what governors do,” she said.
The state’s only residential treat ment center for juvenile sex offend ers went out of business after the Department of Public Health and Human
Services terminated an agreement that allowed for refer rals. Other referrals came from the Department of Corrections.

Martz told an audience of now unemployed Brown School workers that the state “ left the door open,” should the school choose to re-estab lish itself
in Montana.
When an impassioned former Brown School employee addressed the governor in a tone she found offensive, Martz advised him to “ cool down,” or
she’d refuse to answer his questions.

“ We’re all without jobs,” someone else snapped. “ It kind of makes you heated.”
State officials said the school was out of compliance with contract issues, including staffing patterns.
Administrator Greg Pohle main tained that the school had the required man-hours, but not always in the configuration desired by the state. A “ rate
matrix” developed in the mid-1980s for staffing psychiatric programs is to blame, he said. That outdated guide was kept and applied to programs not
psychiatric in nature, like the Brown School, impos ing unreasonable expectations, he said.

“ They made a decision to go ahead and cut the contract; we made a deci sion to close the school,” Pohle explained. “ If Brown School needs to
be the sacrificial lamb to make peo ple start talking about this, then this had to happen.”
He also said an apparent last-ditch discussion in Helena the day before governor’s visit to Deer Lodge neglected to address many issues sur rounding
the closure.

School employees say they resent the implication that the 13- to 18-yearold residents received less that ade quate care. Several later said the chil
dren not only received excellent care, but were well loved by compassion ate, effective staff.
“ I would like to see the state set up a new rate matrix,” an employee told the group before beginning to weep. “ I just want to make it clear to the
community, the kids were always supervised, and we cared about the kids, and we’re sad that they’re gone.”

During the walking tour of the town, local business owners said they feel repercussions from the chain store competition in Butte and Missoula.
“ I’ve seen better years, but I’m not going to complain, we do all right,” Ace Hardware owner Allen Rome told Ohs.
Even so, Rome said his business fell by 12 percent last year, preceded by an 8 percent drop the year before. And his work force of 10 or 12 has
thinned to between five and seven employees.

“ Those `marts’ are just killing us,” he said.
Rome, who serves as state repre sentative in House District 56, told Ohs he was surprised and disappoint ed by the failure of two bills promot ing
low-interest loans for developing infrastructure and buildings.
“ To me, I thought they were a shoe-in,” he said. “ They just flew through the House, and the Senate killed them.”

Those loans might have made Deer Lodge a more attractive place for start-up businesses to locate and pro vide jobs, Rome said.
“ If we could get the infrastructure, we could invite those small compa nies out here,” Rome said.
Pharmacist Jack Anderson said he also feels the pinch from sales lost to mass merchandisers that are pushing into rural areas.
“ It’s increasingly difficult in a small business,” Anderson said. “ The Wal-Marts, Targets, they’re taking their toll ’85”

Anderson, who has operated Keystone Drug with his wife, Gloria, since 1985, said diversity has enabled him to not only keep his doors open, but to
expand.
The drug store’s adapting mer chandise ranges from kitchen gad gets to waterfalls and “ everything but hardware,” he said.
“ You have to try to be something for everybody, but it doesn’t always work,” he said.
Anderson seized the opportunity to air growing concerns to the governor.

Those include a statute that requires small businesses to pay state workers’ compensation premiums a year in advance.
“ But that’s only the small business es,” he said. “ The big guys can still pay quarterly.”
Martz sympathized, but said she wasn’t certain of what is required of big businesses.
“ I can really, really relate to the things you’re saying, because we are in business, too,” she told him. Martz’ family runs a garbage collection busi
ness in Butte.

Anderson also quizzed the gover nor about state Medicaid policies, including patient co-pays that have jumped from $1 or $2 up to $2 to $7 per
prescription. That affects between 30 and 40 percent of his clientele, he said, many of whom are families of prisoners.
“ And if you’re taking several pre scriptions a month, that’s going to have an economic impact on you,” Anderson said during an interview, “
especially if your sole source of income is from the state of Montana.”

He said the states should ask for higher rebates from drug companies they accept into the Medicaid pro gram to offset the costs to the con sumer.
For Anderson and anyone else wishing to be heard at the state level, Martz suggested sending a letter directly to her at the Capitol in Helena. She
promised she’d make someone accountable for an answer, within about a two-week turnaround.

Martz said written queries must be replied to, so “ let us know and we’ll get back to you.”

http://www.mtstandard.com/deerlodge/1dl.html

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