HomeMy WebLinkAbout002 Letter from OwnerStephanie Newman
120 S. Black Ave.
Apt. U
Bozeman, MT 59715
April 24, 2025
Dear Bozeman City Planning Department,
On August 31st, 2023 my home of 32 years burned. The Bozeman fire inspector and the insurance compa-
ny’s fire inspector both agreed that the fire started in the basement in the house’s main electrical box. Due to
fire, smoke, and water damage the house was declared a total loss by the insurance company, Liberty Mutual.
The house is no longer structurally sound. It would cost more to replace the posts, beams, and floor structure
than to tear down the house and build new. I am grateful that my pets and I all got out safely.
I am also grateful that my next-door neighbor’s closest friend, Cecilia Vaniman decided to offer her help.
Ms. Vaniman has been an architect in the Gallatin Valley for over 40 years. She was the campus architect
for MSU for over 20 years and was named one of MSU’s 125 “Extraordinary Ordinary Women” as part of
the university’s 125th anniversary celebrations in 2018. She is extraordinary and in no way ordinary to me.
She has helped me tremendously in many ways since the fire, including donating her knowledge, skill, and
talent in designing and planning a small house for me on the land where the damaged house sits. Just last
week I learned that I cannot afford even a small house with the funds from insurance and my retirement
savings. I did not know, and the insurance company did not tell me, that I needed to check every 6 months
to see what the current replacement costs were for my home in Bozeman. I’ve paid insurance every month
for 34 years; unbeknownst to me, my home was not fully protected. In talking to people since the fire I’ve
learned that about half of homeowners do not know that they are not covered for current replacement
costs. Even though I had paid off my mortgage and I owned my 3-bedroom house free and clear prior to the
fire, at the age of 71 I will have to borrow money in order to build a small 1-bedroom house.
I’ve had several offers to buy the land. I would be a wealthy woman by my standards if I put what I have
been offered together with what the insurance company paid out. I don’t want the money, I want to live on
my corner in Bozeman, MT. I also do not want to aid a developer in building a 200 unit building with little
to no parking which will only be affordable to the upper middle class or the upper class. There is a building
across the street from my current apartment that appears to be mostly owned or rented by people for whom
it is a second home. They can drop in for a weekend skiing in the Bozeman area, possibly come for Sweet
Pea. We have a desperate need for affordable housing, but this place seems to be empty much of the time.
Ms. Vaniman and I have discussed many possibilities for a home for me. I want to stay on my property,
because it has strong emotional ties for me, I have been part of the neighborhood for 34 years, I raised my
child there, was part of the PTO at Whittier School, my daughter climbed the trees in the backyard and
formerly had a treehouse in the Ash tree. I can envision her climbing the rope ladder to the treehouse with
her kitten Silver poking his head out of her small pink backpack. When I retired from MSU in 2017 I had
all the sod removed to begin a drought tolerant cold hardy perennial garden that anyone walking by on
North 5th could enjoy. I plan to replant after a house is built. Currently over a thousand tulip bulbs from
my yard are growing temporarily in Cecilia’s yard. The design Cecilia came up with is in keeping with this
70-something year old neighborhood. It will fit in and not be jarring to my neighbors or the look and feel
of the Midtown community. Also when I retired I started Quoin Community Print Studio in Bozeman. I
teach people to print their own cards, posters, wedding announcements, etc. Through the generosity of the
owners of Wheelhouse Arts Organization on Evergreen Dr. I can continue doing this.
When I talked to the agent assigned to me by Liberty Mutual, she said in a happy, excited, put-on voice, “You
know, you could look at this as an exciting opportunity to move to and get to know a new part of the country
where the money we’ve paid you is enough to buy a house!” Out of curiosity I looked up where that money
would buy a home. It is Mississippi, Alabama, North Carolina, Louisiana…possibly Vermont. I will have lived
here 40 years this coming August. I did the 1987 Sweet Pea poster. I designed and printed an award-winning
poster for the Bozeman public library to honor the “Year of the Child.” I recently designed June Safford’s book
Bozeman from the Heart, which has sold out, and more recently a book of her poetry, drawings, and paint-
ings. My daughter and son-in-law are here. A young man whose mother died when he was 4 years old, whom I
have known since he was 7, is now 29. He says I am “like a mom to him.” He lives here. My friends and former
colleagues are here.
Before I moved to Bozeman from Wisconsin, I had not lived anywhere for more than 6 years. My dad’s job
when I was a kid meant that by my senior year of high school, I’d gone to 8 different schools, including a new
one that senior year. I LOVE Montana. I love Bozeman. I have lived north and south, on both coasts, and in
the Midwest. I intentionally chose to make Montana my home. I don’t want to be someplace else. I want to
live in the neighborhood that I love and maintain the type of housing that already exists on the block. Please
help guide me and Ms. Vaniman through the permitting process as quickly as possible, so I can get back to
living in my own home in my neighborhood.
Thank you,
Stephanie Newman
Professor Emeritus, School of Art
Montana State University