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OVANDO – Three thefts in the Ovando area were reported this last week. All thefts are still under investigation. Powell County Sheriff Gavin Roselles said currently there is no indication that the thefts are connected. On Tuesday, April 2 a stolen snowmobile was recovered in the Ovando area. A Lewis and Clark County resident reported the late 1990's blue Skidoo stolen earlier this year. The owner resumed possession of it April 3. Roselles said this is an ongoing case. Anyone with information a...
MISSOULA – Despite having only five choir members and four members in the band, Seeley-Swan High School musicians performed the most solos, duets and ensembles in the past several years at the District Music Festival April 5 and April 6. The band, five soloists, the brass duet and the brass/woodwind ensemble received a Superior rating. All the individuals and groups except the band will perform at the State Music Festival May 3 and May 4 in Helena. The District Music Festival is an o...
SEELEY LAKE – For a second year, Clearwater Resource Council's Clearwater Partners Workshop hosted author, newspaper columnist and Master Gardener Molly Hackett. As she had the previous year, Hackett drew a large crowd to the Seeley Lake Community Hall April 6. She talked for 20 minutes about planting season extenders and then answered questions for another hour and a half on a whole range of gardening questions. Rightly, assuming audience members would be interested in ways to get plants s...
HELENA - Monday was the final day for general bills to transmit back to the chamber they originated in, so any policy bills that weren’t returned to the House or the Senate, depending on where they started are now dead. Moving forward, most of the work on the House side will be reviewing appropriation/revenue bills from the Senate and processing House bills that come back with amendments from the Senate. Most of the big policy bills are still working their way through the process. As we come down to the end of the session, we will have one m...
In past articles, I described consciousness as awareness but we must ask: Does awareness differ from person to person? Clearly, everyone has consciousness, however, like so much of psychology each person's consciousness is different. We seldom, if ever, consider that our understanding of the world is different from another person's understanding. When we talk to someone, we expect to be understood because we assume their understanding of the world is pretty much the same as ours. This...
SEELEY LAKE - After a six-year hiatus, Alpine Artisans is reviving one of our most popular events – the unique Loon and Fish Festival. Held once again on Memorial Day weekend May 25 and May 26, the focus of this two-day festival is a group art display featuring the artwork of over 25 local artists of the Seeley, Swan and Blackfoot Valleys. These valleys are home to dozens of exceptional artists and the Loon and Fish Festival is an opportunity to view and buy their work in this fabulous group show. The artwork includes pottery, watercolors, w...
SEELEY LAKE - Applications for local organizations to participate in the 2019 Change Your Pace Challenge are due April 30. The Change Your Pace Challenge is a campaign for community-wide giving, celebrating the people and organizations that make our community great. During this four-week giving period, June 28 - July 26, community members give to their favorite participating local nonprofits, while the Seeley Lake Community Foundation solicits contributions to the Match Fund from generous businesses and individuals, to grow the impact of the...
MISSOULA – Missoula County Public Schools Trustees approved a secondary school levy to appear on the May 7 ballot to support the high school operations budget. This will be a mail-in election with ballots being mailed out April 17. The operations levy is for $118,986 and will cost taxpayers $1.55 on a $200,000 home. Due to the restoration of state funding that was reduced in the 2017 special session, this is a$1.02 increase on a $200,000 home. Schools are required to raise a portion of their budgets through a voter-approved levy. When the n...
Following the March 28 deadline to file for open school trustee positions, the local boards either had the same number of applicants for positions up for reelection or seats went unfilled. Incumbent Cliff Vann was the only applicant for the two, three-year positions on the Potomac School Board. Kendra Fredricks filled the one, two-year term and Laura Russell-Nygard filled the one, three-year term open on the Sunset School board Incumbent Todd McNutt will remain on the Swan Valley School board since he ran unopposed. Finally incumbent Gary...
I know how you're feeling...Spring is here! Mountain Bluebirds have returned. Robins are prominently flying around town. A few early-season bugs splattered on my windshield on a recent drive. The weatherman has even forecasted some early rain with a possibility of some rolling thunder. Within the next couple weeks, the ice will be off the lakes and lawns and trees will be sprouting new green growth. And as with previous years, social media and personal conversations will be filled with people...
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks is proposing to re-establish self-sustainable sharp-tailed grouse populations west of the Continental Divide. FWP would achieve this objective through reintroductions of sharp-tailed grouse in core areas with the most suitable habitat including the Blackfoot Valley, the northern Bitterroot Valley and the Drummond Area. FWP would capture a total of 75-180 grouse each year for five years across Regions 4, 5, 6 and 7. Capture locations would be dispersed in a way...
SEELEY LAKE – Seeley-Swan High School English students are embarking on a new project entitled the Empathy Project. With the help of the University of Montana School of Journalism and guided by the classic “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, the students will be capturing the stories of community members to share through podcasts and photographs. “To Kill a Mockingbird” was written by Harper Lee and published in 1960. One of the main themes in the book is compassion. In the book Father Atticus Finch spoke to his six-year-old daughter...
OVANDO –Powell County Planning Board hosted two separate open houses in Ovando and Helmville April 1 and April 4 to discuss the zoning requirement for Powell County Zoning District 3. According to Powell County Planner Carl Hamming, the Open Houses were an effort to gather what people liked, disliked and what they saw as a future vision for zoning for Ovando, Helmville and the northern Powell County region. Hamming said within Montana state code, counties are required to have a growth policy. While the growth policy itself doesn’t have any regu...
LINCOLN – A Lincoln man was found dead along the Blackfoot River last Wednesday after failing to return from a fishing trip the day before. A friend of James Savstrom called the Lewis and Clark County Sheriff’s Department Tuesday night, April 2 after seeing Savstrom’s truck parked along Highway 200 near the Powell County line that night, Deputy Robert Rivera told the Blackfoot Valley Dispatch. Rivera, who is based in Lincoln, responded to the report when it came in just before midnight. He searched the river area near Savstrom’s vehicle...
SEELEY LAKE – Representatives from the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation informed state leaseholders about changes to their eligibility to participate in the cabin and home site sales program at a meeting April 4 at the Seeley Lake Community Hall. Recently resolved road easement issues opened the door for leaseholders in three area neighborhoods to participate in the lease site sales program. The neighborhoods, as labeled by the DNRC, include Clearwater River East Shore (Dogtown, accessed via Grizzly Drive), Clearwater River W...
SWAN VALLEY - The Flathead National Forest is planning to conduct spring prescribed fire projects, when weather, fuel conditions, and air quality become favorable. Smoke will be visible from various places in the Flathead Valley depending on the location of the burn units and weather conditions. Each project follows a Prescribed Fire Burn Plan. The prescribed fire projects are located and designed to be controlled to reduce the potential for adverse effects and escape as a wildland fire. These projects will be in compliance with Montana air...
HELENA – The Seeley Lake Historical Society was among 33 organizations across Montana that received grant funding from the Montana History Foundation. They were awarded a $5,000 grant for the Maloney Cabin Reconstruction Project. Since 2012, the Montana History Foundation (MHF) has awarded annual grants to projects and organizations that work to preserve and protect the historic legacy of Montana. This year, the Foundation reached a new record, giving away the largest amount ever at $134,451 a...
SEELEY LAKE – "The only thing I won't pick up [and clean around] is a dead mouse," said Darlene Muex reeling at the thought of it. Muex is the sole proprietor for Loving Hands cleaning and in-home care service in Seeley Lake. She hopes to work with as many clients as her schedule allows, "and make them happy and provide for any needs they have [except rodent removal]." Muex grew up in Detroit, Mich. Her mother Helen Hester, a professional cleaner for nearly 40 years, took her on cleaning jobs e...
HELENA - Governor Steve Bullock recognized April 8th – 12th as “National Work Zone Awareness Week” in Montana in remembrance of Jeffrey Dyekman, Billings District Project Engineer, who was tragically hit and killed in a work zone on I-90 South in Billings. The Montana Department of Transportation (MDT), Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and public safety organizations statewide are joining forces to urge motorists to take the pledge and “Drive Like You Work Here” to prevent crashes and injuries in construction work zones across Montana....
MOSCOW, IDAHO – Evelyn Faye Mock of Moscow, Idaho died Sunday, March 31, 2019 at Gritman Medical Center. She was 84. Evelyn was born Dec. 4, 1934 at Belgrade, Mont. to William C. and Florence Kent Powell. She grew up and attended school in Montana, graduating from Bozeman High School. She and Robert C. Mock were married April 29, 1953 in Bozeman. They made their home in Missoula. After her children were older, she attended nurses training at St. Patrick's Hospital, graduating with her LPN. S...
I love the desert. From the dry heat to cool nights to flash floods, there is a mystery about the desert to me that causes me to be filled with wonder at it. Having never lived in the desert, there is an unfamiliarity to it that seems to keep me slightly on edge when I am out in it. Parts of the Sonoran Desert of the southwestern United States at first glance sometimes seems to be nothing but endless stretches of uniformity in its plant life and topography. It can have a feeling of harshness, making it hard to imagine how the Native Americans...
MISSOULA - Three Seeley-Swan school records fell April 6 at the opening track meet. The records include the Girls pole vault, Boys 200-meter and the Boys 4x400 relay. Terra Bertsch cleared 10 feet to break a 2017 school record of 9 foot, 10 inches held by Cera Strumpfer. Bertsch was a freshman on the track team in 2017 when Strumpfer set her record. However Bertsch didn't compete in the event until she was a sophomore. She said she always enjoyed watching the pole vault and looked up to...
MISSOULA - After two weeks of canceled meets due to the unusually snowy winter in Missoula and the Bitterroot, the track season finally got under way April 6. The meet featured approximately 1,000 athletes from 28 teams across A, B and C class schools. Despite the sea of athletes to wade though, the Seeley-Swan Blackhawks Boys placed fourth with 53 points while the Ladies took sixth with 40 points. Both the Boys' relay teams took first place. The 4x100 relay team consisting of Logan Robinson,...
Sewers and crafters invited to share space, April 16 and April 17 SEELEY LAKE - The Tamarack Quilt Guild welcomes area sewers and crafters, who need working space, to join the group from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 16 and 17 at the Seeley Lake Community Hall. This is a great opportunity to work on their projects, to spread out and meet other sewers, quilters and crafters in the area at no cost. For more information and/or to RSVP, please call Kris Gullikson at 406-241-1209. The RSVP is helpful because sometimes the hosts cook lunch for everyone...
Americans pay the highest brand-name drug prices in the world. Congress, the Administration, and importantly, our own Montana State legislators must take action now to lower prescription drug prices, the root cause of this problem. That’s why AARP is launching a national campaign urging federal and state policymakers to Stop Rx Greed by cracking down on price-gouging drug companies. AARP’s goal is to help lower drug prices for all Americans through decisive actions and solutions aimed not only at the Federal level but also at the State lev...
