Community Benefits

Prior to the inception of The Big Sky Resort Area District the community of Big Sky struggled to maintain many crucial services due to the lack of available funding. Now, thanks to resort tax dollars, Big Sky is able to maintain those services with highly qualified individuals and state of the art equipment.

Below is a list of the community services funded by the Big Sky Resort Area District during the 2008-2009 appropriation period.

	Blue Water Task Force Blue Water Task Force, Inc. 2010-2011 Accomplishments 2010-2011 Big Sky Resort Tax funds were essential for success of each of the Blue Water Task Force (BWTF) four main programs: 1) community water quality monitoring, 2) watershed resource assessment, 3) community education, and 4) watershed restoration. Under the community water quality monitoring program, BWTF conducted quarterly water quality sampling events and biannual macroinvertebrate sampling events (stream bugs) on the Gallatin River and its tributaries. BWTF has been collecting long-term water quality and stream bug data on the Gallatin River and its...
	Gallatin County Sheriff's Office With the funding from the Big Sky Resort Area District, The Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office is able to have deputies stationed in the Big Sky and Madison areas. The funding allows the Gallatin County Sheriff to provide general law enforcement services and the associated support functions to the people of the Big Sky Area in a more timely fashion. All of our deputies are Search and Rescue Coordinators. These individuals set up Incident Command Posts and give direction and add a calming effect in a crisis situation. Sergeant Matt...
	Friends of the Big Sky Community Library Friends of the Big Sky Community Library Allocation Period: 2010-2011 Allocation Amount: $52,000 Funding from the BSRAD enabled the Big Sky Community Library to serve during this past fiscal year, 4,542 visitors who borrowed 9,220 items or came to work on one of the our 16 available computers. The library staff continues to improve services, ensure current books and materials are available, and provide an environment that encourages life-long learning. The weekly Monday story time remains extremely popular with both parents and pre-schoolers. This interactive hour encourages early literacy and is...
	Northern Rocky Mountain RC&D - Noxious Weed Committee The Gallatin/Big Sky Noxious Weed Committee has continued to build a successful grassroots noxious weed program over the past five years along the Gallatin River Corridor, from the entrance of Yellowstone National Park to Four Corners, thanks to assistance from the Big Sky Resort Area District. This program is educating thousands of local citizens about noxious weed control every year as well as providing on-site assistance to a wide variety of landowners. The program also has established a comprehensive weed mapping program with agency partners and is able to facilitate treatment...
	Big Sky Forest Health and Fire Safe Program The 2010-2011 year proved to be a great success for the Forest Health and Fire Safe Program. Allocated Big Sky Resort Area District (BSRAD) tax funds assisted with the following: The formation of the Big Sky Natural Resource Council Establishing the Healthy Forest Initiative Planning a Woody Biomass Forum The development of a comprehensive Big Sky Forest Stewardship Plan Treating 133 acres for wildfire protection and forest health Assisting 21 landowners financially, grant funds totaled $65,000 for on-the-ground work Joining FireSafe Montana as a Big Sky FireSafe Council
	Arts Council of Big Sky Programming Through the continued support of the Resort Tax, the ACBS has been able to bring top quality national entertainment to Big Sky. The funds that were awarded to the ACBS for the 2008-09 resort tax year helped us secure the bands for the 2009 summer concert series, and the funds were used to produce eight free shows. For the July 4 concert this year, the ACBS decided to spend a little more money to bring in Mingo Fishtrap from Austin, Texas, and a higher quality sound and light production. The results...
	Big Sky Post Office The Big Sky Resort Area District has been critical to permit the Big Sky Post Office to continue to provide a convenient level of retail service. The last time the United States Postal Service performed a survey in Big Sky, they learned that Big Sky residents preferred a centrally located post office for mail delivery and wanted expanded retail service hours, including service on Saturdays. Without the assistance of the resort tax, we could not continue to provide the expanded service levels we have today, and would be forced...
	Big Sky Community Corporation The BSCC was privileged to be awarded several grants and rollovers to provide monies for final engineering and permitting for the planned improvements at the Big Sky Community Park, ball field activities and improvements, tennis program support, public services, and construction of the Spur Road Trail. Parks and Recreation - Grant monies were used to support a variety of Big Sky Community Corporation programs this past year including: rerouting the road to the Community Tennis Courts that are located at Ophir School, purchase of wind guards, balls, and nets for...
	Big Sky Transportation District - Skyline The Big Sky Transportation District, operating services for the third year as Skyline, continued to see growth in ridership. For this Fiscal Year (July 1, 2008 through June 30, 2009) ridership increased for both the local service, as well as the intercity service (known as the “Link Express”). The Big Sky Resort Area District continues to be the largest single source of local funding to support Skyline, and in FY 09, the support allowed Skyline to lease new, modern transit buses to be used for the local service. ...
	Gallatin Canyon Consolidated Rural Fire District Big Sky Fire Department Allocation Period: 2010-2011 Allocation Amount: $350,000 The Big Sky Fire Department used $88,000 of its allocation to make the final payment on the Meadow Station building addition. An additional $170,000 was used to close the gap between operating revenue and expense for the year. Careful expense management allowed the Department to forego the remainder of its allocation for the year. In 2010 the BSFD responded to 467 calls. Two-thirds of these calls were for emergency medical services. Two-thirds of emergency medical calls were for visitors to the greater Big...
	Big Sky Search & Rescue The most significant success of Big Sky Search and Rescue over the past year is the continuation of our rapid response to those needing assistance in the back country surrounding the Big Sky area. We conducted 20 rescues including 3 water rescues and five searches for a total of 25 missions last calendar year. The support of our operation by the Big Sky Resort Area District in providing equipment and training to our volunteers has been invaluable. BSSAR also finally broke ground and has a foundation completed for the new...
	Women In Action Women In Action's mission is to enrich the lives of children and families in the Big Sky community. Through volunteer activism and fundraising, we aim to assist in providing our under-served rural community with access to affordable health, family and educational services. Women in Action began in 2005 and is the only social service organization within Big Sky, a rural community with little access to public services and an especially high cost of living. Women in Action programs goals are developed based on the needs of the community and...
	Big Sky Chamber of Commerce The funds allocated to the Big Sky Chamber of Commerce by the Resort Tax Board each year give us the opportunity to maintain our projects and improve our promotional efforts in the best interest of Big Sky businesses. Resort Tax is instrumental in our ongoing success, and in our ability to continue to bring more visitors to Big Sky each year. This year, Resort Tax funded, among other items, our new website design, new visitor guides, computer upgrades, and direct flight marketing. Please visit www.biggestskiinginamerica.com for a look at the winter marketing...
	Gallatin Valley Snowmobile Association The 2008-2009 Buck Ridge Trail grooming project funded in part by The Big Sky Resort Area District continues to be a very good project for the maintenance and grooming of The Buck Ridge Trail System. Scheduled groomings are Mondays and Thursdays each week starting in mid December and ending late March or early April depending on snow conditions. BSRAD funding for this project makes for a much more safe and enjoyable riding season.
	Big Sky County Water & Sewer District No. 363 This year, Resort Tax funded $200,000 for debt service cost sharing and $50,000 to update the GIS Aerial Photographs of the Big Sky area.