Positive outlook: Butte, Montana Economy 2010

It is Karen Byrnes’ and Jim Smitham’s job to sell Butte.

While that was more difficult last year, the two economic development officials say the city came out of 2009 in relatively good shape.

Smitham, director of the Butte Local Development Corporation http://www.buttemontana.org/, and Byrnes, director of community development for Butte-Silver Bow http://www.bsb.mt.gov/departments/community_dev.asp , said their offices remained busy courting and assisting businesses despite the national recession.

They both count the year as a success: Butte businesses were able to avoid any major closures and layoffs and some continued to excel.

"We weathered the storm fairly well," said Smitham. "If you look at the whole picture, it wasn’t stellar but we did OK." And OK is good.

By Tim Trainor

Full Story: http://www.mtstandard.com/articles/2010/02/14/business/hjijjhifjagjhh.txt