Clinton Plans Visit To Montana Farm This Week President To Discuss Farm Policy With A Few ‘Average’ Agricultural Families
President Clinton will spend two hours on a farm north of Billings on Thursday, talking about farm policy with people who work the land.
The president will visit the farm of Les Auer near Broadview on Thursday afternoon.
Auer said he doesn’t know how his farm was selected, but an aide to Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., called Saturday asking if he would be interested in being a host to Clinton.
“I said, ‘Yeah, I think we could work that out,”’ Auer said.
Clinton will be in the Billings area tonight and Thursday after giving the commencement speech at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo.
After his arrival tonight, Clinton will speak at Montana State University-Billings. Thursday night, he will conduct an hour-long town meeting at KTVQ television.
The town meeting will be broadcast on the Montana Television Network stations in Billings, Bozeman, Butte, Glendive, Great Falls and Missoula as well as on several radio stations.
On Thursday afternoon, he’ll be at Auer’s farm, a 7,000-acre spread off Montana Highway 3 north of Billings.
That meeting will not be open to the public, and only a few farming families in the area have been invited to meet and speak with the president, according to the White House planning staff.
“From what I understand, he wants to sit down with an average agriculture family,” said Keith Schott, another Broadview-area farmer who is to meet with the president.
Clinton is scheduled to stay at Auer’s place for a couple of hours, but Auer, who operates the farm with his wife and 15-year-old son, said Clinton’s advance staff told him not to be surprised if the president stays longer.
“From what they’ve told us, he’s very easy to talk to,” said Auer, who hopes to talk with Clinton about budget cuts in the national farm program.
Jeanette Heiken, who has farmed between Broadview and Lavina with her husband Steve since 1959, said she is excited to meet with the president, especially in such a small group.
“It’s something you would never expect to happen to you,” she said. “We’re just going to try to be ourselves and visit.”
Auer said he doesn’t plan to polish up the farm for Clinton’s visit - except that a Laurel, Mont., firm, Top Hand Air Sprayers, is spraying to control mosquitoes that have taken to the standing water in the area.