Sorted by date Results 276 - 300 of 405
SEELEY LAKE – Part I of the report on the March 7, 2018 public trails meeting gave the results of the resident and visitor survey conducted in 2017 by the CRC Trails Advisory Council. Part II presents the views of local business owners and discussion on partnerships. Part III will present recommendations derived from the surveys, and suggestions for how to proceed in the future. In addition to the survey information submitted by residents and visitors to Seeley Lake, the Seeley Lake Trails A...
SSHS Yearbooks Wanted SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Historical Society is digitizing the Seeley-Swan High School yearbooks. They are missing yearbooks for 1968, 1970 and 1984. “High school yearbooks are like a digital time capsule, capturing the hopeful young faces from SSHS in a history preservation project of Seeley Lake Historical Society and the Seeley-Swan High School,” wrote the Historical Society in an email. If you have a copy of one of the missing yearbooks and would be willing to loan it to be scanned please contact the Histo...
Special District Elections will be held for the Seeley Lake Rural Fire District and Seeley Lake Sewer District during the May 8 mail-in election. For the rest of the boards, if the number of applicants is equal to or less than the number of seats open, no election will be held. Candidates have until March 29 to file for the four school districts with open trustee positions. Five candidates applied for the two, three-year terms on the Seeley Lake Rural Fire District. Incumbents Gary Lewis and Connie Clark filed to remain on the board. Seeley...
As of Jan. 29 only three people have filed for the 16 open board of trustee positions in Potomac, Seeley Lake and Condon. Of the nine open school board positions at Seeley Lake, Potomac, Swan Valley and Sunset, no one has applied. All positions will be voted on in the May 8th mail-in election. If the number of applicants is equal to or less than the number of seats open, then those that applied will be elected by acclamation. Local boards and number of positions to be elected include: Greenough-Potomac Fire District (2, 3-year terms); Potomac...
SEELEY LAKE - At their Jan. 18 meeting, the Seeley Lake Sewer Board voted to restart engineering on the treatment plant and Phase 1 of the collection system. In other business, they signed grant applications for funding to design Phase 2 of the collection system. Engineering had been put on hold until the notice and protest portion of the process was completed. The district didn’t want to spend the money if there was not going to be a project. Now that the landowners have approved the funding the process can resume. In a letter to District M...
SEELEY LAKE - The Seeley Lake Community Council packed the parking lot and filled the barn with residents wishing to learn more about a proposed subdivision at their Jan. 8 meeting. In other business, the council’s newest member, Lee Boman was sworn in. The council also discussed its trails fund, had an air quality update and accepted public comment, including a petition to roll back Seeley Lake’s reduced speed limits. The 60-lot subdivision is called Swan Mountain Estates and is located east of the north end of the Seeley Lake Airport in Powel...
SEELEY LAKE - The Seeley Lake Sewer Board voted to levy special assessment after receiving protest letters from less than 50 percent of landowners at their Dec. 21 meeting. Three board directors are up for election in May of 2018. The special assessments will raise $5.79 million to fund construction of the district's wastewater treatment plant and Phase 1 of the collection system. The rest of the funding for the $15.7 million project has already been secured from various granting federal and...
The Seeley Lake Sewer cleared another hurdle this week as the protest period came to a close Dec. 18. Landowners had until the close of the business day to file their written protest against the proposed Levy of Special Assessment. Approximately 42 percent of landowners attempted to protest. The district rejected about two percent of those protests. The rejected protests didn’t change the outcome of the protest. The failure of the protest means the district is now authorized to sell $5.79 million in bonds to match their existing grants for t...
SEELEY LAKE - Think about this. Don’t miss grabbing the golden ring. Presently, there are more than 3,000 separate parcels within the Missoula County portion of the Clearwater Valley and watershed. There are more than 1,500 living units, including cabins on state and federal land as well as mobile homes on rented lots which have personal property taxes levied on them. Additional parcels and living units lie within the valley/watershed in Powell County. If a Clearwater Valley Watershed Consortium [CVWC] were established, it would be both a s...
SEELEY LAKE - On Nov. 30 there was a letter to the editor from E. L. Taylor. In the letter a comment was made in regards to the Water District installing pipes in conjunction with the Sewer District’s project. The comment was, “Apparently the third phase of the [sewer] project has no water piped in from our [water] system. That means when the sewer goes in there will also be the substantial added cost of a water system that has not been discussed.” Let me set the record straight. There will not be a water system installed down Boy Scout Road...
SEELEY LAKE - Healthy discussion is productive but spreading falsehoods hurts everyone. A letter recently sent to residents living within the sewer district boundaries included several misleading assertions, for example: Statement in letter ---“The proposal will not appreciably change water quality in the watershed.” Fact --- This is patently false and has no basis in fact, studies or science. The sewer system will remove the source of groundwater contaminants from the most highly populated areas of town. Statement in letter --- “There are s...
SEELEY LAKE - Do the Seeley Lake Sewer ads speak the truth? Of course they don’t! For those of you still making a decision on whether to oppose the sewer, don’t let the Seeley Lake Sewer Board and its various agents confuse you with lies. They (recent ads in the Pathfinder) claim that a small group of area residents have been spreading misinformation regarding the scientific studies that support the sewer system, the districts work and how the project will impact you. Here’s what this SMALL GROUP has done for this community: • It’s members h...
SEELEY LAKE - You likely have recently received another letter from Don Larson (dba Citizens for Sensible Wastewater Solutions) telling you to protest the sewer proposal to build a treatment and collection facility in Seeley Lake. He notes first off that the proposal will not appreciably change water quality in the watershed. I disagree entirely. While the sewer will not return all of our watershed to pristine conditions, it will take a giant step forward in cleaning it up. We annually dump approximately 250,000 gallons of untreated urine into...
SEELEY LAKE - Since the start of the Seeley Lake Sewer District’s protest period I’ve received a handful of questions from landowners regarding the process. Generally speaking if we receive enough questions from people we look into it for an article because most likely there more people out there with the same questions. Normally that works great, we get peoples’ questions answered and move on. I put out an email with these questions to District Manager Greg Robertson but he has refused to answer any of them saying that if people want their que...
SEELEY LAKE - Some have criticized our planned sewer system for having pumps. Pumps are part of everyone’s lives, for example: How does your vehicle get its fuel? How do you get your water to your home? How is the Propane transferred from the supply truck to your propane tank? How does an airplane get its fuel to the engine? How does your refrigerator or freezer keep your food cold? Does your electrical generation require pumps? Generators, cooling systems, HV AC? How does your vehicle get its cooling and oil distribution? Do those pointing f...
SEELEY LAKE - For you sewer residents still deciding whether or not to protest the proposal, here’s some more food for thought. The Board has no current engineering estimates for sub-districts 2, 3 and 4. They will undoubtedly run into the millions of dollars to build the collections systems. The Board is counting on getting the financing for these sub-district projects from the State legislature. But that is a very “iffy” assumption. Here are a couple reasons why: • The State government uses mostly coal tax trust fund dollars for infrast...
SEELEY LAKE - The last of the sewer district's public information meetings on the proposed $15.7 million sewer project was held Nov. 13. It is now up to the district landowners if the project can move forward. Joe Nickell from the public relations firm PartnersCreative ran the meeting. Presenters Dr. Walt Hill, Professional Engineer from Great West Engineering Amy Deitchler and District Manager Greg Robertson provided information on the project background and the process ahead. The presenters...
SEELEY LAKE - The Sewer Board letter of Nov. 16 stating its intention to incur debt for a sewer project was incorrectly labeled a “ballot” in my last weeks/letter to the editor. Ballots may not be forwarded to “snow birds” but this letter is not considered a ballot and may be forwarded. I apologize for any confusion this may have created. Now...as to the letter: It, too, is confusing and obscure. We all basically received a form letter which says we can protest. If you received three letters, it means you have three properties in the sewer d...
SEELEY LAKE - The Sewer Board has nicely stacked the deck for passage of its atrocious, expensive sewer proposal. Here’s how. By ignoring last December’s vote and opting for a “protest” procedure, the Board has effectively disenfranchised every business and residential renter in the district and made property ownership a condition of participation...that would be about 20 percent of the residents in the district. Further, by scheduling the protest period in November/December it has disenfranchised every “snowbird” who goes south for the win...
SEELEY LAKE - The Seeley Lake Sewer Board adopted a resolution at its Nov. 8 meeting to levy special assessments on property in the district to pay for construction of the proposed wastewater treatment plant and Phase 1 of the collection system. In other business, the board signed the inter-local agreement with the county. They also discussed a letter from landowners with wells near the proposed wastewater treatment plant that are concerned about their wells becoming contaminated. District Manager Greg Robertson explained that the resolution...
SEELEY LAKE - At this time it looks like sewer rates in the downtown Seeley area will be around $80 a month...that will be just about the highest monthly sewer rate in the state. Landlords will have no recourse but to pass that cost on to their renters. That’s on top of one of the highest water rates in the state. There are easily 100 rental properties in sub-district one, if you count business and residential alike. My questions to sewer supporters, how does that help affordable housing? How will your (service) employee be able to afford to l...
SEELEY LAKE - Greg Robinson and the go-along sewer board have revealed intentions to charge very unfairly for sewer Operation and Maintenance. First, they cannot seem to learn or accept that when it comes to using and deriving benefits from a sewer, residences and businesses are fundamentally not the same. Second, within each class, using and deriving benefits will not be the same. Regarding the distorted proposal that residences and businesses should pay the same—NO! Businesses have an extra benefit in that they can deduct utility charges a...
MISSOULA - The Missoula County Commissioners approved a grant to help lower the initial operating and maintenance (O&M) of the proposed Seeley Lake sewer at their Oct. 25 administrative meeting. The commissioners also approved an edited version of the inter-local agreement between the county and Seeley Lake Sewer District. District Manager Greg Robertson explained the need for subsidies. The District has been split into four phases for constructing the collection system and only Phase 1 will be connected to start with. With no subsidies, the...
SEELEY LAKE - At the Seeley Lake Sewer Board meeting Oct. 19, Greg Robertson announced that he was changing the assessment methodology to using equal assessments for residences and businesses. The Pathfinder article also said that this would level the playing field for the notice and protest and ALL lots in each phase would have EQUAL WEIGHT to their protest instead of commercial lots having a greater say. Besides that, the board and general manager completely missed the point of what the complaining about their original plan for charges was....
SEELEY LAKE - The Seeley Lake Sewer District Board was informed at their Oct. 19 board meeting that the assessment methodology was changed to using equal assessments. The timeline for the notice and protest period has been set. In other business the board accepted a new inter-local agreement with the county and was updated on water testing results. District Manager Greg Robertson said he reevaluated the assessment methodology after the last meeting. Previously he had been instructed to come up with a method that would charge businesses a...
