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“I’m concerned the needs of rural areas are not being balanced with the state’s urban areas,” said Rep.
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While the 2005 law that created the Big Sky trust calls for the department to “balance” the needs of urban and rural areas, a Montana Free Press analysis of commerce department data finds that rural counties, home to a third of Montana residents, have received only 16 percent of the $26 million in job creation grants awarded over the program’s history. The small-town company, however, is an anomaly for the job grants program, which is administered by the Montana Department of Commerce. “For a company like us, that’s a major factor,” said General Manager Thomas Dilworth. A $22,500 grant award through the program will help Big Sandy Organics hire an expected three new employees this year. Headquartered in the 600-person town between Great Falls and Havre, the four-year-old business manufactures the Kracklin’ Kamut-brand wheat snack, transforming locally grown large-kernel kamut wheat into a Montana-made product that’s beginning to find its way into stores nationwide.Īs the company attempts the leap from one-off arrangements with mom-and-pop stores to contracts with national distributors, it’s getting help from a key state jobs program, the Big Sky Economic Development Trust Fund, designed to nurture businesses that can provide Montana workers with stable, well-paid jobs. (Montana Free Press) There aren’t too many businesses adding jobs amid the rural fields of north-central Montana these days, but Big Sandy Organics is doing just that.