Great Falls To Seek Advice From Bozeman and Belgrade About City Growth

When you're trying to get better at something, there are a variety of approaches you can take. For some, it's all about trial and error; for others, it's about seeking advice to avoid mistakes that could be made through trial and error.

Now, I don't know about you... but I'd rather have knowledge I don't need than need knowledge I don't have.

Great Falls Officials To Seek Advice From Other Montana Cities

I recently caught up with Great Falls City Manager Greg Doyon in-studio at 560 KMON. With all of the discussions about big businesses moving in, I asked him what things he and his fellow city officials were buttoning up as we get closer to the end of the year.

He announced that they will be looking to Bozeman and Belgrade for some pointers on how to handle city growth.

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"I almost hesitate to share it because I think some people would be like, well, we don't want to be like Bozeman," Doyon initially said, "But we're going to go to Bozeman and Belgrade and we're going to -- the department head team, the leadership team -- we're basically going to ask them: 'What would you have liked to have known then that you know now with your growth?'"

What Cities Need to Know About Growth and Expansion

I feel like most people would appreciate that. Why wouldn't we want to learn from other people's mistakes. And our City Manager knows that - he's keeping his expectations for Great Falls realistic.

"I don't think we're going to grow like Bozeman," he said, "I don't think we're going to grow as fast as Belgrade."

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"But there are lessons that those communities learned about their infrastructure and their capacities and their capabilities to do service things. I want our leadership team to engage those folks that have been through it so they can hear things that they haven't had to think of before. And Bozeman and Belgrade, thankfully, they're very excited about hosting us for a day."

What Will Great Falls Learn From Belgrade and Bozeman?

Doyon was very transparent and shared a little bit of what he and his colleagues are expecting on the visit.

"So we'll do one community in the morning, one in the afternoon," he said, "And the short end of a long story is, is that we really want to basically get the mindset shift that we're looking for into growth and utilize some of our sister cities in the state and what they've experienced to help us prepare this community for that."

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"So again, we don't wake up one day and say like, oh my gosh, what are we going to do today? We can say, we talked about this was going to happen and we established this baseline and we established here's the things that we can do in order to mitigate those changes that are coming."

Great Falls Will Not Turn Into a Copy of Other Cities

I absolutely understand why he is so emphatic about not wanting to mimic other cities because he knows what we all know: There is only one Great Falls.

The growth that's coming is only going to amplify the identity of the city and what it represents. That's everything from hard work to the strong sense of community.

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"And again, I'm not saying we want to be Bozeman," Doyon said, "To be really clear to everybody listening, that's not what I'm saying. But they have learned a lot. I know the city manager."

"I know some of the staff. Same thing with Belgrade. I know what they go through because of the growth demands on their community."

"I want the leadership team to hear that as well."

You can check out the video of the interview below.