Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - New City of Missoula Mayor Jordan Hess appeared on Monday’s KGVO Talk Back show to promote the fact that he has continued the program called ‘Wednesdays with the Mayor’ that was initiated under the late John Engen.

“I'm here to tell your listeners that I'm putting on the second of what's a monthly series this Wednesday called ‘Wednesdays with the Mayor’ down at the Missoula Public Library,” began Hess. “It's this Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. It was a way to connect with constituents and report back on what was going on in the community and receive feedback from the community. John (Engen) did one or two of them before he got sick and it's something that I appreciate and wanted to continue.”

Hess described the topics addressed in his first episode.

“We arranged the program around a topic of getting to know me,” he said. “We had a lot of content on growth and development and particularly focused on the Midtown area. We talked a lot about economic development and economic opportunity within our community, and we put that all in context with the Midtown master plan that's going on right now, as well as some of the planning along Brooks Street. We took general questions but really a lot of it surrounded growth and development and housing and those sorts of issues.”

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Another issue discussed at the event was the issue of housing in Missoula.

“We had the opportunity to talk about a lot of the programs that we had going on for housing,” he said. “We're really working on retooling our zoning code. We've talked on this program about that. But we've also got some other ways in which we're investing in housing as a city. So we've got a public-private partnership that will be kicking off here later this month or later in November. That's on the north side of Scott Street, and that's developing permanently affordable housing. So there are several ways that the city is participating in the housing market.”

Hess said the next ‘Wednesdays with the Mayor’ program they will discuss the Crisis Intervention levy on the ballot.

“This month we're shifting gears and we're talking about a ballot issue,” he said. “We're talking about the Crisis Intervention Levy and the far-ranging topics covered by that levy. I really want to focus on some of the things that have taken a backseat, let's say on that levy. There's some funding in there for crime victim advocates, for example, providing legal advocates for victims of violent crimes. There's funding for what's called a crisis receiving center, a place that's not the emergency room and not the jail for people experiencing a crisis to get a little bit of help.”

Click here to listen to the entire 30-minute segment with Mayor Jordan Hess.

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