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The giant scissors were out Friday at a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the completion of the first of 11 residences at Butte's newest affordable housing development.

Before the ribbon was cut several people involved in the project spoke about how affordable housing and economic development are tied together. Sen. Jon Tester was one of the speakers and reiterated that message.

"Anytime you can get housing built in a community that's affordable it's going to help create economic development. Economic development associated with that but also economic development cause you got a place for a family to work and live," Tester said.

Mountain View Apartments are two- and three-bedroom affordable housing units located on Curtis Street near Silver Bow Homes. The land was donated by the City of Butte for the $1.8 million project and the money came from several community partners as well as a grant from the Seattle Federal Home Loan Bank's Affordable Housing Program. Starting today they are accepting applications for the units.

Tester had a busy day in Butte. He also stopped by a company that trains soldiers how to move and survive in high altitude wilderness environments.

PEAK Inc. hosted the senator this morning, explaining what they do and demonstrating some of their training. They bring in soldiers from across the nation for two-week periods and take them out into the Highlands and other Southwest Montana locations for training because the environment is similar to what they may run into in Afghanistan.

PEAK officials say it has trained about 650 soldiers since opening four years ago. They're thankful they'll get to continue since the senator added a provision to his logging and wilderness bill to designate the areas they use for training as special use areas.

"Just seeing what we do and he, Senator Tester, has been a big supporter of our company and our efforts to train U.S. military for high altitude operations," Mark Gollinger of PEAK Inc. said.

Tester's day in the Mining City also included a visit to Margaret Leary Elementary. He also gave closing remarks at the Montana League of Cities and Towns.