Sorted by date Results 151 - 175 of 542
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Sewer District Board held a meeting June 15 where it seated its newly elected Board members, elected new officers, selected the market value approach to spreading assessments to pay for the administrative budget and set a new time for regular meetings. The Board also discussed hiring a new attorney for its regular business. Directors Tom Morris and Jason Gilpin who were elected in May were seated at the meeting. They were not sworn in during the meeting because Morris and Gilpin had already completed their Oath o...
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Sewer District filed a lawsuit Friday, June 12 against newly elected board directors Thomas Morris and Jason Gilpin seeking to stop the pair from taking any steps that may interrupt the ongoing sewer project. Despite filing the lawsuit three days prior to their June 15 board meeting, there was no notification or discussion of it at the meeting. The 77-page Verified Compliant with 16 pages of attachments was filed by District board attorney Jon Beal and verified by board President Pat Goodover. Goodover’s notarized...
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Sewer District Board passed a budget for the 2021 fiscal year at their June 4 special meeting that is a little more than double last year’s budget. They tabled the decision on how to spread the assessment over the landowners. In other business the Board didn’t take action to authorize the project to go to bid because there are still a handful of things that are incomplete. District Manager Jean Curtiss presented the Board with a proposed budget between $224,329 and $283,329. The $59,000 difference was what was b...
MISSOULA – Fourth Judicial District Court Judge Robert L. (Dusty) Deschamps, III denied a Writ of Mandamus that would have forced the Missoula County Elections Administrator (EA) to approve two citizens’ initiative petitions for collection of signatures. Attorney Colleen Dowdall filed the petition for the Writ in January of 2020 on behalf of a pair of landowners in the Seeley Lake Sewer District, Don Larson and Tom Morris. The two citizens’ initiative petitions in question were filed with the EA in 2019 with one filed by SLSD resident Frann...
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Sewer District Board discussed a plethora of topics at its May 21 regular meeting including more than doubling the annual District operating budget, project updates, hiring a new attorney, drilling new test wells and performing an income survey. The meeting was recessed in the middle to hold a public hearing on a grant application for Phase 2 of the collection system. As the meeting started President Pat Goodover asked the directors in attendance, including newly elected but not seated directors, their thoughts o...
SEELEY LAKE – The issue of when directors terms end and when to seat newly elected directors reared its head again in a special meeting May 21 that was held ahead of the regular meeting and also spilled into the regular meeting. The special meeting had just one item, litigation strategy, under new business on the agenda. Director Beth Hutchinson questioned how the meeting was scheduled on 48 hours notice explaining that the by-laws require 80 percent of the directors to agree to it. She said she was not asked. District Manager Jean Curtiss expl...
MISSOULA – District Court Judge Leslie Halligan threw out Don Larson’s lawsuit against the Seeley Lake Sewer District on May 21. The order came in response to a motion by the District’s attorney Jon Beal seeking to dismiss the case due to the plaintiffs providing inadequate responses to discovery and missing multiple deadlines. Beal successfully argued that the plaintiffs’ actions or lack thereof were abusive and a bad-faith litigation tactic that prolonged the lawsuit to a severe disadvantage to the District. The District has repeate...
SEELEY LAKE – According to a memo on the Seeley Lake Sewer District website the Board will not seat two newly elected Directors at their May 21 meeting. Instead they will wait until a special meeting June 15. The decision is sure to cause some waves at the May meeting as it goes against the Board’s own by-laws and relies on how the word “new” is interpreted in a section of the Montana Code Annotated (MCA). In a statement to the Pathfinder, Sewer Board President Pat Goodover wrote that when considering what date to seat newly elected Directors T...
We have had a lot of questions and criticism lately regarding our Letters to the Editor section. Readers have questioned why we are willing to “print lies,” “spread hate and discontent” and “further divide the community by printing such garbage.” The answer to this is simple for us - Letters to the editor are a vehicle to exercise freedom of speech. It is a platform we offer to EVERYONE whether we agree with it or not. First and foremost, letters to the editor are run in the opinion section of the paper because they are just that, someone’s t...
SEELEY LAKE – Saturday afternoon, May 9 Clearwater Montana Properties CEO Kevin Wetherell found himself in the crosshairs of a social media storm when his name and image appeared on a post in the "Justice For Gregory and Travis McMichael" private Facebook group. The post, accompanied with a photo of a tactical shotgun lying on a chair read, "Stay out of our Neighborhoods and this incident will not happen again." Wetherell quickly denied the post on his personal page posting, "I was hacked, or s...
The final, unofficial results until canvass are in for the Seeley Lake Sewer Board, Seeley Lake Elementary Board of Trustees and the Seeley Lake Elementary General Fund Levy. The Sewer District election had approximately 67 percent voter turnout and the School Board and bond had approximately 64 percent turnout. For the Sewer Board of Directors' two open positions, Thomas P. Morris and Jason Gilpin received more than double the votes than the closest candidate Duane Anderson. Morris received 168...
SWAN VALLEY – An accident on Highway 83 just south of Holland Lake Road claimed the life of 29-year-old Melissa Ellis-Munoz on May 1 at approximately 3:30 p.m. According to Montana Highways Patrol Trooper TJ Templeton, Ellis-Munoz was traveling southbound when her silver Subaru left the roadway to the right side, over corrected and then rolled. Speed is not believed to be a factor but the accident is still under investigation. Templeton said Ellis-Munoz was restrained and suffered fatal injuries...
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Sewer District (SLSD) held its April 16 meeting four days later on April 20 after a glitch in their online meeting software prevented the login instructions printed on their agenda from functioning. While the Board eventually was able to join into the first meeting, they delayed it to ensure the public was able to participate. At last month’s meeting the Board held off paying an invoice from Beal Law Firm that covered charges from March through December 2019 totaling nearly $48,000. The charges were for Dis...
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Sewer District (SLSD) held its March 19 meeting via teleconference call to avoid congregating people per recommendations to limit the spread of coronavirus. The District finally received a bill from their attorney for regular Board business for ten months of work in 2019. In other business the District received word that a grant for Phase 2 is no longer available and the Board voted to reapply. The 42-page invoice from Beal Law Firm covered charges from March - December 2019 and totaled $47,860.57. The D...
SEELEY LAKE – According to the Missoula County Elections Office, there are a handful of changes to the voter registration process for property owners in the Seeley Lake Sewer District for the upcoming board election. The May 5 election will be conducted by mail with ballots being mailed out April 15. While any active registered voter residing within the Sewer District is eligible, there are also several ways in which landowners may be eligible to vote. How they register depends on how they own their property. Residents, either renters or l...
MISSOULA – The Lady Blackhawks bowed out of the State C Basketball Tournament after falling to Melstone in their opening game March 12 and Scobey the next day. Both the Lady Blackhawks and Melstone spent the first quarter testing each other's defense looking for a way to break through. The defense was winning with the score just 4-4 after the first quarter. The Lady Blackhawks finally found their groove at the start of the second quarter putting up 10 unanswered points but Melstone fought b...
MISSOULA – Two landowners in the Seeley Lake Sewer District (SLSD) have petitioned the Fourth Judicial District Court in Missoula for a Writ of Mandamus regarding the Missoula County Elections office’s denial of a pair of citizens’ petitions. Attorney Colleen Dowdall filed the Petition for Writ of Mandamus on behalf of Don Larson and Tom Morris. If the Writ is issued the Court would order the SLSD attorney to complete the ballot language as laid out in state law and force the Missoula County Elections Administrator to approve the pair of previo...
SEELEY LAKE - U.S. Senator Jon Tester announced that the Seeley Lake Sewer District will receive a grant for $660,000. SLSD Manager Jean Curtiss said the grant will be applied toward Phase 2 of the collection system and reduce the cost to landowners by $4,853 per lot. The grant funding comes from the Water Resources Development Act and will cover about 10 percent of the cost of constructing Phase 2’s collection system. A complete funding package has not been secured for Phase 2 but grants from Montana’s Renewable Resource Grant and Loan Pro...
FRENCHTOWN – The Lady Blackhawks won three tight games at the Western C Divisional to take the top spot and secure a place at the State C Tournament. The Lady Blackhawks faced Philipsburg in the opening round. They had a great first quarter but by the half they were just three points up. The game was tied by the third quarter and the Lady Blackhawks managed to come out on top by the final buzzer, 31-28. Terra Bertsch and Bethany Hoag led the Lady Blackhawks with 12 and 11 points respectively. L...
FRENCHTOWN – The Seeley-Swan Boys basketball season came to an abrupt end after a pair of losses at the Western C Divisional. The Blackhawks had a good start leading Twin Bridges by one at the quarter. However, Twin Bridges took a sizable lead by the half and then blew the game out in the third quarter. Final score was 40-58. Dakota Wood and Walker McDonald led the Blackhawks with 12 points each followed by Chase Haines with 8, Brayden Rodriguez with 6 and Quinlan Ream with 2. Wood and Haines each had a pair of three pointers while McDonald had...
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Elementary School Board hosted a community cross-over event Feb. 22 to gather information that will be used to create a strategic plan for the school. Dr. Daniel Farr led the cross-over event and is working for the Board to help develop a strategic plan. Farr explained some of the issues public schools are facing nationwide. In the last century approximately 100 things have been added to the list schools are asked to teach students with dozens of those coming in t...
FRENCHTOWN – The Lady Blackhawks stomped the Valley Christian Eagles and defeated the Clark Fork Mountain Cats Friday, Feb. 21 for the District 13-C Championship and a trip to the Western C Divisional. The Boys also advanced but they took a little longer route. They defeated Victor but then fell to Darby in the Championship game Feb. 21. The Blackhawks then defeated Clark Fork in a challenge game Monday night to earn their spot at the Western C. The Lady Blackhawks faced the Eagles in the s...
SEELEY LAKE – Missoula County Building and Development Programs Manager Nicole Whyte attended the Seeley Lake Community Council meeting Feb. 10 to discuss changes to the County building permitting program including adopting new codes and a fee increase. Whyte said that following the Building Forum put on by the Council last year, several County agencies that were involved in different areas of permitting got together to discuss how they could better streamline the permitting process for both contractors and homeowners. Out of that meeting c...
SEELEY LAKE – The Lady Blackhawks and Blackhawks both head into this week's District 13-C Tournament seeded in the top spot. The Lady Blackhawks wrapped up their final week of the regular season with a pair of victories defeating Darby on the road Feb. 14 and Victor at home Feb. 15 while the Boys split the week falling to Darby and defeating Victor. The Lady Blackhawks found little competition in Darby putting the Tigers down 21 to 2 in the first quarter. The Tigers put a little better fight i...
SEELEY LAKE – The Lady Blackhawks and Blackhawks defeated the Trojans of Drummond on the road Feb. 7 and Lincoln Lynx at home Feb. 8. The Lady Blackhawks put Drummond down early, outscoring them nearly three to one in the first half and they didn't let up. Final score was 62-28. Two Lady Blackhawks scored into the double digits with Klaire Kovatch hitting 8 of 11 shots for 16 points and Bethany Hoag scoring 13 including hitting 7 of 11 free throws. Emily Maughan had a pair of three pointers w...
