Sorted by date Results 126 - 150 of 404
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Sewer District Board had a marathon meeting stretching over four hours on Aug. 20. The board covered many topics ranging from a cash shortfall, potential bond election, mandating hookups, legal bills, water testing results and other regular business. District Manager Jean Curtiss informed the Board that the District has around $34,000 to operate in the coming months after paying this month’s invoices. The first half of this year’s property tax bills are not due until the end of November so the District won’t...
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Sewer District Board voted to stick with a market value excluding improvements method for spreading the cost of the annual District operating budget at a Special Board meeting Aug. 3. Then they set the assessments at a hearing Aug. 6. The Board held another special meeting following the hearing, where they voted to continue seeking information regarding a bond election that could change how the District pays for the proposed sewer system. At the Aug. 3 special meeting Manager Jean Curtiss presented the Board w...
Missoula County Health Department Specialist Jim Erven doesn’t seem to get it. The residents in the Seeley Lake Sewer District fully understand the Health Department is a bully, it does its work poorly and the $40-million sewer project it is pushing will further impoverish us. Let me explain further. The Board has never fully tested the area aquifer to accurately determine the “need” for a sewer. Lake water quality remains virtually unchanged over the past 40 years I have resided in this community, despite considerable growth. The Board has nev...
SEELEY LAKE – At the July 16 Seeley Lake Sewer District Board meeting, Missoula City/County Health Department Environmental Health Specialist II Jim Erven told the Board that if the proposed sewer system were scrapped by the voters in the District, there would be a government response of some kind. “One thing that will not be acceptable is a do nothing option,” said Erven Erven felt the need to make a statement at the Board meeting after the Health Department saw the agenda item considering putting the proposed sewer to a vote of the elect...
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Sewer District Board covered a wide range of topics at their July 16 meeting. They signed a resolution recommitting to move the project forward while considered a different method of financing, discussed appealing the denial for attorney’s fees in the lawsuit against the District and reconsidered the annual fee assessment methodology. The District also received an invoice from Beal Law Firm for nearly $15,000 for the lawsuit filed and then withdrawn on behalf of the District against newly elected President Tom Mor...
SEELEY LAKE - The preceding sewer boards have put together an amazing financial package to fund this project. It includes over $10 million of grant money, with approximately $6 million of loans in a package that will fund the building of the treatment plant and the collection system. To construct the treatment plant and collection system plus hookups in Phase 1 (subdistrict 1) will cost each residential unit no more than $54.25 per month (Resolution #201725235). This is the least expensive, most feasible plan we have investigated or that has...
MISSOULA – District Court Judge Leslie Halligan denied the Seeley Lake Sewer District’s motion for award of attorney’s fees against Don Larson but granted the District its Verified Bill of Costs totaling $510.24. Halligan declined to rule on a motion by the Plaintiffs to disqualify the District’s attorney Jon Beal. Halligan dismissed the lawsuit that was filed by Larson in June of 2018 on May 21, 2020. Approximately a week after the case was dismissed, Beal filed a motion to award attorney’s fees. In the order denying attorney’s fees, Halli...
SEELEY LAKE - Coming soon will be increased sewer tax assessments for ‘water-linked’ properties ranging from $1,200 to $2,000 to pay ADMINISTRATIVE sewer costs. Other properties in the district are assessed only $90 to $700 for exactly the same purpose. Your new tax can be found in a 10 page, small print document called: “FY21 Assessment Methodology Assessment Options.” Even if you still support the sewer project, I assume you’ll INSIST on being treated FAIRLY in the process. This change in assessments was conceived out of fairness....
SEELEY LAKE - If this sewer was a good idea, users in the district would be ALL for it and it would have been built already. As proposed, it’s dissolved into a decades-long lawyer and lawsuit can-of-worms and getting worse. After the recent board election, members of the board had a CLOSED meeting to discuss how to manage the influence of two newly elected members who weren’t seated yet. Their solution was a LAWSUIT aimed to stop two new members” from taking any steps that may interrupt the ongoing sewer project.” Seriously? Is this the kin...
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Sewer District held a special meeting June 22 to take action on issues stemming from their attorney resigning from his position as the Board’s business counsel. They also discussed and voted to withdraw a lawsuit initiated by the District and filed on June 12 against newly elected Directors Tom Morris and Jason Gilpin. The meeting started out with a discussion on what was on the agenda and what was not. On the District’s website, information for the meeting listed several actions the Board may take, however, the a...
As businesses and schools closed because of the coronavirus, Blackfoot Communications had to keep up with the new booming demand of people working from home, while Seeley-Swan High School also addressed a lack of computers for their students. Not only did Blackfoot increase broadband for people in the Seeley-Swan Valleys but they also connected students who did not have online access or a laptop at home. “We are still trying to dig out of loads of work. We only have so many technicians and we are doing our best,” said director of ope... Full story
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... Full story
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 - When deciding the proposed sewer, I hope the conservative, financially and socially responsible citizens of Seeley consider this: • Combined utility, water and sewer costs per user is likely to be THREE times what’s considered a normal/fair rate...unless we beg for more grants and hope for help from somewhere. [Montana Dept. of Natural Resources and Conservation / Pathfinder article “Annual assessment may double” 05/28/2020] • Is now really the right time to saddle the village of Seeley with a never-ending debt? We are in the mi...
CORRECTION SEELEY LAKE – In the Seeley Swan Pathfinder article, “Annual assessment may double,” published May 28, 2020, the cost of Pyramid Mountain Lumber, Inc.’s share of the Seeley Lake Sewer District’s tax bill was incorrect. Pyramid’s sewer tax bill doubled from approximately $10,000 in 2018 to approximately $20,000 in 2019. If the proposed administrative budget is passed and the assessment method stays the same, it will more than double again this year. The administrative budget and assessment method will be discussed and adopted at...
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...
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...
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. 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 (33.94%) votes and Gilpin close behind with 161 (32.53%) votes. The Seeley Lake Elementary School District 34 election also had two clear...
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 - Though I am trying to appreciate Troy Spence and Don Larson’s efforts to tell the fine folks of Seeley Lake who they should vote for in the upcoming sewer district director election, I am a bit troubled by their need to tell people, who are more than capable of making their own decisions, who to vote for. Part of the reason I am running myself is the fog of opposition and their blizzard of opposing letters and information have created much confusion. I would like to be able to cut through that and inform myself and others of t...
