by Travis Mateer
Back in October the news about Amazon wasn’t ready to disclose to the public yet, but the Missoulian did its best to tell the public what was coming. Here is David Erickson on Twitter explaining how to read between the lines of his reporting:
I thought it was odd at the time local officials supposedly had no clue about what this immense warehouse was being built for. Here’s Emily Brock acknowledging her cluelessness:
Emily Brock, Missoula County’s director of economic and land development, said she didn’t know the purpose of the warehouse.
“Nothing in county planning or building records indicates anything substantive, just that it’s a HUGE warehouse,” she said in a text.
Now that Christmas is almost here, I think the reason for the secrecy is obvious: Governor Gianforte’s office wanted to be the ones to announce this VERY EXCITING development of AWESOME jobs being created by this lovely corporation. From the link (emphasis NOT mine):
Gianforte’s office provided this comment from Amazon through a press release from his office on Friday.
“This new delivery station in Montana will connect Amazon’s national fulfillment network to customers in Missoula and beyond, while also creating more than 100 new jobs within the community during the coming years,” said Amazon spokesperson Leigh Anne Gullett. “We look forward to bringing faster and more efficient package delivery to Montana residents, as well as to growing our partnerships with businesses and community organizations in the area.”
Now that the news about Amazon is out, the charitable money that went to a local non-profit last month is making more sense. This strategic donation of $2.5 million is a GREAT move, considering not everyone in Missoula is going to be excited about this Bezos behemoth coming to Zoom Town.
I wonder, what does Tracy McKee think about this development? I thought about Tracy last month as I was reading between the lines of the Amazon donation. You see, Tracy is VERY obsessed with Jeff Bezos, and her recent behavior is getting me a little worried.
I probably shouldn’t worry that I watched Tracy try to enter the ZACC last week, despite the door being locked. And I shouldn’t be concerned that Tracy was window-shopping for a hatchet, which I mentioned in this post about our Multi-Modal Mayor. Instead of worrying, I decided to make a song about it!
Amazon should know that Missoula is really great at dealing with mentally unstable people. We also have a workforce that understands what they deserve, and it’s NOT slinging ice-cream for Bryan Hickey at 10 bucks an hour! For more context on the plight of the ice cream scoop labor issue, here’s an interview a friend sent me worth watching:
Getting back to Amazon, here’s more from Governor Gianforte about this wonderful employer coming to Montana, and who is first at the money trough to benefit:
The Governor provided more specific information about the facility.
“The construction project has been a collaborative effort among multiple Montana-based businesses including GroundSpeed Concepts, Dick Anderson Construction, True North Steel, Temp Right Service, INC, PETES Electric, and Hyalite Engineers,” he said.
I was interested in these “Montana-based” businesses that Gianforte mentions, so I looked up the first one, GroundSpeed Concepts, and I couldn’t find much online at all. Here’s what the Secretary of State has on this company:
The secrecy around this warehouse build is indicative of how our New Jersey-based Governor executes the duties of his office in Montana, so reporters and journalists in Montana are going to have to work EXTRA HARD to uncover who Montana is being sold out to.
Welcome to Missoula, Amazon!