BOZEMAN — In 2023, the City of Bozeman received a historic $28 million in local, state, and federal grants.
“It's the most grant money we've ever received in a single year in the city's history,” says Bozeman City Manager Jeff Mihelich.
The Bozeman Police Department received just under $20,000 to investigate child and human trafficking.
“People, the personnel, and the technology to allow us to try to do better, more thorough investigations to make sure that child trafficking, when it does happen, we can identify people who are committing those heinous crimes, investigate it and hopefully throw them in prison,” says Mihelich.
$1.6 million will be used to create a curbside composting program that the city expects to roll out in 2024.
“This new program we're going to have is a composting program so people can actually get some curbside composting in the city for the first time ever,” says Mihelich.
The largest grant that the city received was more than $20 million for the improvement of Kagy Boulevard.
“The proposed project will expand the capacity of Kagy Boulevard by one lane so that there is a consistent two lanes in each direction,” says Nick Ross, Bozeman Transportation and Engineering Director.
Originally the city was short $6-8 million for the Kagy project, but with the $24 million grant, they’re now able to reallocate that money to other projects.
“Our commission has signaled that the College Avenue projects from 8th to 19th would likely be next in line,” says Ross.
The Bozeman Transportation Department received three other grants totaling $1.2 million to build bike paths and for the SAFER streets program which was created after the death of Bozeman High’s Kelly Fulton, who was struck and killed while riding his bike to work.
“Once we complete that safety action plan, that will make us eligible for additional capital funding that could be used,” says Ross.
Construction on Kagy is expected to start around 2027 and city leaders are hoping to keep local drivers happy.
“To do our best to keep up and maintain the same quality of life people expect. When Bozeman was, you know, a bit smaller,” says Ross.
