Second public meeting on change to Port hours reduction like the first: 'No'

For the second time in four weeks, representatives from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CPB) were in Malta last Saturday afternoon to talk about a proposal to reduce the hours of operation at four Montana ports of entry at the U.S./Canadian border which would include the Port of Morgan in Loring, Mont., on Highway 191.

For the second time in four weeks, those at the town hall meeting held at the Great Northern Lodge room spoke out against the plan to reduce the hours and CPB personnel at the meeting said that no one at any of the town hall meetings have spoken in favor of the hours' reduction. The changes, if approved, would go into effect on June 1 of this year.

Michael Freeman, CPB assistant director from the Seattle Field Office, said the CPB hopes to change the hours at the Port of Morgan to winter hours in the summer which would be 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. instead of 8 a.m. until 9 p.m. Freeman said the main reasons for seeking a change in the hours at the Montana ports is because it is hard to staff the smaller, rural ports, as well as money from the northern border between the U.S. and Canada are being diverted to the southern border where President Donald Trump declared a state of emergency due to illegal aliens entering the United States. Freeman also said that the number of vehicles crossing into the U.S. at the Port of Morgan has continued to drop over the last 10 years.

Kent Wasson of Loring asked if an economic impact study could be conducted, and the June 1 change delayed, to see how the change of hours would affect business in Phillips County. Family Matters clothing store manager Avery Sorenson agreed and said changing the hours could cost the local store valuable customers.

"With the potential of the border hours being cut back at the Port of Morgan, this would greatly affect our business in a negative way," she said. "We have a lot of Canadian traffic that travels through to go to different state parks, Billings, as well as come to Malta to use the race track."

Sorenson said that Family Matters customer-base consists of 14-percent Canadians, largely due to Canadian racers coming to Malta for the Phillips County Motorsports events held through the summer months.

"On weekends that we have races in town, we have a 23-percent increase in traffic in the store and upwards of 39-percent increase in sales compared to weekends where we don't have races in town," Sorenson said. "With these hours cut back, those racers would not be able to get across (the border) in time, thus not being able to race...these numbers may not seem like a huge impact, but some years, it's the difference between being profitable or not."

The people at the two-and-a-half-hour meeting speaking out against the change of hours included local business owners, members of Phillips County Motor Sports, a representative from U.S. Congressman Greg Gianforte's office, representatives from U.S. Senators Steve Daines' and Jon Tester's office, as well as Canadian motorsports enthusiast and members of Canadian government.

"It should be crystal clear from what you've heard today that people don't want these hours changed," Phillips County Commissioner John Carnahan said.

Anyone wishing to comment on the adjustment of hours can do so via email at: [email protected].