Helena and MPO Schedule Open Houses, Virtual Outreach for Winter Response

The City of Helena and the Greater Helena Metropolitan Planning Organization are hosting in-person open houses tied to winter response and transportation planning, with sessions scheduled 3:30–6:30 PM Tuesday, Feb. 24 at the Helena Civic Center, 340 Neill Ave, and 3:30–6:30 PM Wednesday, Feb. 25 at West Valley Fire Rescue – Station 1, 1165 Forestvale Road. The events are intended as public opportunities to provide input on winter operations and longer-term transportation work.

An original local report described the outreach in a single sentence: “Who: The City of Helena, Greater Helena Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), and partner agencies scheduled open houses and virtual outreach sessions tied to winter response and to ongoing transportation planning work. The events were mentioned in local reporting during the Feb. 23–24, 2026 col”, the final word in that sentence is truncated in the source.

Community discussion posted on Reddit supplied the in-person schedule and outlined the planning context, stating, “There will be two open houses where the public can provide input Tuesday, February 24, 2026 | 3:30–6:30 PM Helena Civic Center (340 Neill Ave). And Wednesday, February 25, 2026 | 3:30–6:30 PM West Valley Fire Rescue – Station 1 (1165 Forestvale Road).” The same Reddit thread also described the MPO’s planning effort: “The MPO is currently preparing a 'Long Range Transportation Plan' which will guide transportation spending for the next 20 years. (The fact that 20 years is considered long range is a whole other discussion).”

The Reddit post framed public participation as a required part of the MPO process, asserting, “The MPO is required to take public input into account.” That post also summarized MPO membership and governance with the line, “The MPO is a federally mandated group that includes Helena, East Helena, the State DOT, and the county.”

The Reddit thread included several unverified critiques of representation and local advocacy, which were presented as community perceptions. A commenter wrote, “The State and the County's interests aren't exactly aligned with Helena's interests, but unfortunately, Helena has not been a good advocate for itself,” and added, “The former administration (including the current mayor) used the MPO as an excuse to eliminate the city's bike/walk committee to try to shut down advocacy for biking an walkability.” The same commenter said, “The people advocating for safer streets are mostly retired and not super organized - there is no functioning Bike/Walk Helena group,” and also claimed, “The MPO has done a poor job providing notice of this and it is not even on their website yet.”

While the original report named “partner agencies” as co-organizers, it did not identify those agencies, and the reporting available to date does not include dates, platforms, or links for the “virtual outreach sessions” the report mentioned. Neither the original excerpt nor the Reddit posts supplied virtual session details, so the only confirmed logistics in available sources are the Feb. 24 Helena Civic Center meeting at 340 Neill Ave and the Feb. 25 West Valley Fire Rescue session at 1165 Forestvale Road, each running 3:30–6:30 PM.

Attendees at the Helena Civic Center and West Valley Fire Rescue events will be able to offer input on winter response and transportation priorities; the MPO is described in community posts as developing a Long Range Transportation Plan to guide spending over the next 20 years, and one community commenter insisted the MPO “is required to take public input into account.” Organizers listed in the reporting are the City of Helena, the Greater Helena MPO, and unspecified partner agencies, while virtual outreach details remain absent from the materials provided to date.