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At 9 a.m. on the dot, a group of nine women made for a dirt road to begin their biweekly morning stroll. It wasn't as cold as it could have been - a cold front was predicted to roll in over the weekend - and minutes before the walking commenced it was around 20 degrees in Condon with a light wind. The ladies were prepared, of course, with coats, hats, gloves and specialized hiking shoes that had enhanced traction. Some say the Amazing Walking Women of Condon cancel the walk if it's 10 degrees...
The Seeley Lake Rural Fire District Board met last Tuesday to hear board members ask questions, and touch base on a community member’s request and firearm carry on district property. Board Chairman Gary Lewis said he called the Missoula Deputy County Attorney to discuss firearm carry laws on fire department property. In November, the board discussed the pros and cons of allowing or not allowing firearm carrying on property. After a situation that occurred in October last year that left a member of the public feeling uneasy when a fire d...
Seeley-Swan High School's Principal and Athletic Director Shawn Holmes was presented with an award from the Montana High School Association in recognition of his service to the organization. Holmes said the recognition extends beyond him and to all the people that have helped him put on various MHSA events, like districts, divisional or state tournaments. These are optional for districts to host, but as a Class C school part of a larger district - Missoula Public Schools - Seeley-Swan High Schoo...
The Seeley Swan Hospital District met Tuesday, Jan. 14 to discuss challenges and changes within the health care system broadly — the future of Medicaid expansion this legislative session — and more locally at the medical center in Seeley. After a survey went out to Seeley Lake area residents in late November and responses indicated a need for better communication regarding what Seeley’s medical center offers, the board has been discussing how to better share information with the public and how to be in better communication with Partn...
Seeley Lake Elementary School is going through its accreditation process and is looking for community input to complete one element of the requirements. The state Office of Public Instruction rolled out a new portion of the rotating accreditation schedule this year for elementary and high school districts across the state. Schools are accredited as a way of holding districts accountable to their roles and purposes laid out in the state Constitution, like staffing levels and test scores. Generally the schedule includes developing a mentorship...
Winter outdoor enthusiasts have more to look forward to so far this year, particularly as recent precipitation has boosted snowpack levels across the area watershed. While starting the fall and winter at low snow levels, the Blackfoot watershed - which runs from the Continental Divide east of Lincoln to the Blackfoot River's confluence with the Clark Fork River east of Missoula - is in a better condition than it was last year when snowpack was at a record low. More recent precipitation has put...
Swan Valley Connections, a natural resource conservation and education nonprofit based in Condon, has purchased a new office space. After 28 years in the Condon Work Ceter, staff members anticipate moving into their new location, named the "River House," early this spring. It is located about a mile south of their current location. In May 2024, staff at Swan Valley Connections were told the Northern Region of the Forest Service, based in Missoula, was considering conveyance, or a transfer of...
Swan Valley Connections, a natural resource advocacy and education nonprofit based in Condon, was awarded just over $219,000 from Missoula County’s Department of Emergency Management as part of a federal grant the department was awarded in October. The funding was officially approved at a Missoula County Board of Commissioners meeting on Dec. 17. The Community Wildfire Defense Grant was funded from money within the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed during the Biden Administration. Missoula County was awarded $4.8 million to spend over f...
The Governess disapproves of the Maid and Bulter's flirtations and she hates Drosselmeyer. She throws her hands up in dismay at Drosselmeyer's arrival and doesn't like his antics during the party. What she does get on board with, though, is the Nutcracker March. After watching the children dance it, she decides the whole crew should try it out. She stands front and center, the Christmas tree displayed behind her, and leads the cast of Garden City Ballet's 40th Nutcracker in the steps. For three...
The Seeley Lake community is grappling with the effectiveness and longevity of its medical center, the only spot with primary and dental care in about a 50-mile radius. Partnership Health Center, the nonprofit organization that provides services to the Seeley-Swan Medical Center, experienced financial hardship during the covid-19 pandemic and Montana’s Medicaid redetermination process, both across its six locations in Missoula County and specifically at the Seeley clinic, according to hospital representatives. These financial stressors — and...
Candidate filing for special district elections, including school board and community councils, opened on Dec. 12. Particularly in unincorporated towns like Seeley Lake and Condon, being a part of various boards is a way community members can get involved in local issues and in some cases — in community councils particularly — can be the mouthpiece for the community to the Missoula County Board of Commissioners. In the Seeley-Swan area, there are two open positions on community boards: one with the Swan Valley Fire service area and one on the...
On Dec. 7 downtown Seeley Lake was bustling with community members gathered for the Second Annual Seeley Lake Tree Lighting presented by the Lions Club. This year's Christmas tree included 1,000 lights that were paid for by the Lions Club and strung by Missoula Electric Cooperative. The theme of this year's lighting was Logger Santa. Logger Santa and Mrs. Claus were in attendance and posed for pictures after the tree was lit. The tree wasn't the only decoration on display. The fence in front of...
Standing under western larches, pine trees and Douglas-firs, the first group of University of Montana seniors began their pitch. To finish off the semester, these students - including six groups of about six - ran through their project description: how many trees were in their assigned area, their ideas for removal and retention of different tree species and their plan of action under a December blue sky just north of Placid Lake. "Our objectives for the stand are to build resilience to fire thr...
Through different forms of Christmas greenery making, Seeley Lake community members rang in the holiday season with evergreen boughs. On Dec. 1, Lu Perez, a Seeley Lake community member, gathered 14 women for what she's deciding is the first annual Christmas wreath making party. She got the idea after making a wreath herself, which she donated to an auction for Sparrow's Vine, a parenting resource center in Seeley Lake. People loved it, she said, and it gave her the idea of hosting a gathering w...
Our incredible newspaper designer, Jenny Wherley, had her last day with the Pathfinder this week. Jenny has worked in community news in Montana for over 20 years, formerly for the Kavanagh family, who owned a variety of local newspapers across the state before they retired from the business. Some of the papers Jenny worked for until recently, including a few that Ponderosa Publishing/Mullen Newspapers — the Pathfinder’s publishers — own were once Kavanagh family papers as well, like the Cut Bank Pioneer Press. The care and atten...
The Seeley Swan Medical Center will undergo schedule changes in the new year beginning Jan. 1. Two medical doctors, Dr. Jesse Charles and Dr. Jackie Ordemann, who were available for in-person appointments in Seeley Lake prior to the change, will now be available for telehealth or in-person appointments at Missoula’s Partnership Health Center location. Partnership Health contracts with the Seeley-Swan Hospital District to offer services at the Seeley location. Dr. Ordemann will remain available onsite in Seeley for OB care once a month. Other i...
At the beginning of October, a situation took place on Seeley Lake Fire District property where a volunteer was carrying a gun and it made someone feel uneasy. According to Fire Chief Dave Lane, the person felt intimidated that fire district volunteers could carry on district property. The fire district doesn’t have a policy in place that restricts firearms on district property. Some districts develop policies that do in their particular locations. Doing so and posting signage of the policy is not a violation of any federal laws, like the S...
The Seeley Lake Sewer District Board spent a good portion of its November meeting etching out priorities for a potential wastewater treatment system’s location and technology. While a preliminary engineering report is still in the works, the district’s engineering consultant, Water & Environmental Technologies, or WET, walked the board through engineering matrices meant to help weigh different elements of project considerations. Typical engineering matrices use locations, scores, rankings and weights, and the combination of all results in a f...
The Seeley Lake Elementary School Board voted on Nov. 18 to eliminate the Friday STEAM, or Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, program effective Dec. 1. The program, which is designed to add extra optional science and math instruction part of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant program, had seen low attendance since the elementary school switched to a four-day school week this year. One concern of families as the school transitioned to four days was a reduction in childcare, lunch and educational advancement...
One thing was clear from the results of a survey sent out to Seeley Lake residents from the Seeley-Swan Hospital District — not everyone is totally clear on what’s offered at the local medical center. Even from a fairly basic level, the perception that it is a hospital and provides urgent care services was fairly widespread, which is not the case. “The Seeley-Swan Hospital District is not a hospital. We are a mission-driven board that oversees the facility and partners with Partnership Health Center, who provides primary care and other healt...
Trying to make use of remaining federal money, the Missoula County Public Works Department is submitting for three more grants to address various deteriorating bridges in the county. After an unsuccessful submission for a Bridge Investment Program grant, or BIP grant, in March, which would have funded the replacement of Boy Scout Road (Seeley Lake), Glacier Creek (Condon) and Sunset Hill Road (Greenough) Bridges, Shane Stack, public works department director, said the department is planning on resubmitting for the grant next year and using...
The Seeley Lake Water District Board voted to approve a rate increase to users’ monthly water fees. This increase is needed to balance the nonprofit water district’s budget after Pyramid Mountain Lumber, the district’s largest user, shuts down and stops using water. Vincent Chappell, Seeley Lake Water District manager, said when the mill does finally shut down the district will lose about $55,000 each year. “Unfortunately we have to find a way to make up that deficit and the only way to do that is to raise rates to other customers,” Chappell...
Standing in a circle under an afternoon autumn blue sky, big fluffy clouds blocking the view here and there, the students of Swan Valley Elementary School were told to be a tree. More specifically, a model of a tree. Taylor Tewksbury, education program coordinator with Swan Valley Connections, explained that models are examples and scientists use them to understand something without, in a tree's case, needing to chop it down. Students made concentric circles of their classmates and were...
Despite playing some hard-fought games, the Lady Blackhawks will not be traveling to state tournaments this week. The team placed fifth overall in divisionals last week, winning against Valley Christian and losing against Drummond and Philipsburg. "I couldn't be more proud of them as individuals and especially the team they became and finished the season as," Lady Blackhawk Coach Janelle Greenwood said. Greenwood said each volleyball player had moments where they were outstanding. All the girls...
To commemorate the end of an era, the Pathfinder went back through the archives to find mentions of Pyramid Mountain Lumber all the way back to 1983 when the paper was published as The Valley Times. There aren't instances from each year since, mainly because we'd run out of space, and also because one gets the general gist from the compiled remarks. A main refrain after the announced closure of Pyramid Mountain Lumber on March 14 of this year was that it was the glue that held Seeley Lake...
