A former newspaper reporter with 20 years’ experience in marketing and corporate relations has been hired as the new director of Two Rivers Authority, the economic development arm of the city of Hardin.

Jeff McDowell, 55, started work Friday and said his hiring will be formally announced at the TRA board’s next meeting, on Dec. 7.

Two Rivers Authority and its empty detention facility have been making headlines for months, first because of the TRA’s offer to house Guantanamo Bay detainees there and then because of a California con man’s attempt to sign a contract to operate the jail.

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s history,” McDowell said of those episodes. “I’m starting at square one and moving forward.”

McDowell, a native of Eugene, Ore., attended high school and college in Missoula, graduating with honors from the University of Montana journalism school.

After working as a reporter for five years in Eureka, Lewistown and Hamilton, McDowell spent 13 years in corporate relations, working for Ribi ImmunoChem Research Inc., a biotechnology company in Hamilton. McDowell said he then worked in Oregon for a few years before doing corporate relations again for three years, this time for an insurance company in Boise, Idaho.

For the past three years, he said, he has been a marketing and communications consultant in Missoula.

Two Rivers Authority, a tax-funded economic development agency, started advertising for a new director after the former director, Greg Smith, was placed on paid leave Sept. 11 and then formally resigned on Oct. 5. It was Smith who opened discussions with Michael Hilton, the con man who formed a shell corporation, American Police Force, and attempted to lease Hardin’s vacant jail.

McDowell said his priority will be to market the Hardin Industrial Park, which sits on 800 acres of land on either side of Interstate 90 on the north side of town. The Hardin Generating Station is the main tenant of the park, which also takes in the ground where the $27 million detention center was built.

McDowell said his job will be to get the word out that Hardin has an industrial park with land, power availability, infrastructure and easy access to rail and highway transportation.

Unlike a lot of industrial parks, he said, “We have our infrastructure in place. … You don’t have to worry about streets, power or sewer lines. It’s ready to go.”

As for the 464-bed jail, McDowell said he has to “repair the disconnect” between the perceived support the facility had before it opened in 2007 and everything that has happened since then. He said the state of Montana, the U.S. Marshals Service and other agencies all told Two Rivers there was a need for new prison facilities in the state.

“I don’t think that demand has disappeared,” he said.

McDowell, who will make $44,000 a year, said he looks forward to living in Hardin, especially after three winters in frequently overcast Missoula.

“I love this area,” he said, “mostly because you can see the sun in the winter.”

Other applicants for the director’s job were Amanda Boatright of Billings, Dan Kern of Hardin, Becky Shay of Laurel, Rich Solberg of Hardin and Jason Jochems of Big Sky.

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