Hamilton City Council Updates: 2026 baseball season, Happy Trees Initiative

The Hamilton City Council covered various topics at a Tuesday, March 3, meeting including the 2026 Bitterroot baseball season contracts and updates on grants which fall under the Happy Trees Initiative.

Bitterroot baseball season

Hamilton Director of Parks and Urban Forestry Amy Fox brought forward three contracts for approval to Hamilton City Council for use of Vester-Wilson Field and Tallman Field for the 2026 baseball season.

One of the contracts is for the Hamilton High School team with the season running from March 16 through the end of May. There is no state tournament this year being held in Hamilton through the high school according to Fox but there will be regular season games.

The second contract is with the Hamilton Red Sox American Legion baseball team with a provision to allow the sale of alcohol at games. They tried out selling alcoholic beverages last summer and received no complaints and had no issues arise due to alcohol consumption. They felt it would be appropriate to allow the sale of alcohol to continue this year as well.

Jamie Tadvick, board president for the Red Sox, spoke during the meeting and says he appreciates the city’s support and that they love playing in Hamilton. He says they are hosting a regular season tournament with teams from Canada and eastern Montana coming for the event. They will also be hosting a district tournament.

The third contract is with the Hamilton Youth Baseball and Softball Association formerly known as Babe Ruth under the valley baseball organization. When Fox met with the new group president they spoke about some of the improvements needed, including fixing some of the fencing where players have gotten caught on when reaching through for a ball.

They are also looking at bringing in clay and decomposed granite to add to the infields. The mix would need to be brought in from Helena since nowhere in the Bitterroot Valley to get the material. The cost for the upgrades is expected to cost around $14,000. The group asked if the annual fee they pay of $750 could be reduce since they are making improvements. Fox spoke with City Attorney Karen Mahr, she said it would be up to the discretion of the City Council to reduce or waive the fee. After some discussion the council proposed several options but ultimately decided they would come up with a solution at a future time.

Happy Trees Initiative

Hamilton Mayor Dominic Farrenkopf got approval from city council to sign a contract with the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC) to accept grant money for the Happy Trees Initiative.

The initiative will be funded through the DNRC grant and Inflation Reduction Act grant funds.

Hamilton Director of Parks and Urban Forestry Amy Fox gave an update on the Inflation Reduction Act grant funding information which was awarded to her department in November. The grant is one she was unsure they would receive as the funds were temporarily "frozen" by the federal government back in January.

The Inflation Reduction Act grant was for around $50,000 and has no match required but it is a reimbursement grant meaning the city pays for it outright and then submits for reimbursement.

Fox says the Inflation Reduction Act grant is complementary to another grant her department received last year to update the city tree inventory which is what prompted her to name the project with both grants the Happy Trees Initiative.

The money will go to pruning trees, planting new trees, training on how to take care of the trees and getting information out to the community about trees available to plant.

Fox is currently waiting to hear if they will be given an additional grant which will allow an assessment to be done of ash trees in Hamilton that are old and may need to be removed. Several of the ash trees by the Bitterroot Public Library have blown over in the past and there is currently a pest spreading in different states that could kill the trees according to Fox.