Sorted by date Results 201 - 225 of 455
SEELEY LAKE - While Montana has the highest suicide rate in the United States, Missoula County continues to make improvements through education, outreach and services provided to those in mental health crisis. Nancy de Pastino, Suicide Prevention Coordinator Missoula City-County Health Department, presented on suicide prevention and resources available in Missoula County at the Seeley Lake Community Council meeting Jan. 13. Montana has the highest rate of suicide in the nation – twice the national average in 2017. Despite the state s...
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Sewer District Board pushed their final by-laws amendment out another month and spent a significant amount of their Dec. 19 meeting hearing and responding to public comment on a variety of issues. Last month the Board approved the bulk of the updates to their by-laws but excluded an updated section on Duties of the Board. The Board agreed to send that section back to the committee to rework it. District Manager Jean Curtiss provided the board with another draft Duties section for consideration. The committee h...
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Sewer District Board hammered out the final details of the Rules and Regulations, approved an opinion of probable cost for operating the system, adopted most of their bylaws revision and discussed a variety of other business at their four and a half hour long Nov. 21 meeting. The new “worst case scenario” monthly estimate is $130.58 plus $2 per 1,000 gallons used for properties assigned one Volume Ratio Unit (VRU), equivalent to a single family house. Rules and Regulations Hearing The Board made minor edits to th...
SWAN VALLEY - Swan Lake District Ranger Chris Dowling received applause from attendees at the Swan Valley Community Council special meeting Nov. 21 when he announced there would be no fee to use the Day Use at Holland Lake during the 2020 season. Dowling explained that the fee for the campground would increase from $18 to $20 per night. He said he had met with the concessionaires and the Flathead National Forest supervisor Chip Weber to go over numbers of administration and operation costs. They did not want to see a decrease in tourism...
SWAN VALLEY – The Swan Valley School Board approved the Swan Valley Elementary School Strategic Plan and reviewed their evaluations at their monthly meeting Nov. 20. They also unanimously approved increasing Principal Ralph King’s position from one day a week to two days a week for the rest of the school year. The board has been conducting annual evaluations since they adopted the Strategic Plan in February of 2015. The Strategic Plan is one of three documents that the School board uses to provide direction and governance for the school. The...
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Elementary School board plans to undertake the creation of a strategic plan for the school in the coming months. They voted at their Nov. 19 meeting to hire Dr. Daniel Farr to help with the process. Farr came highly recommended by SLE Superintendent Daniel Schrock who worked with Farr on a strategic plan at his last school. Farr is an educational consultant with 34 years of experience in public education in Montana. He had a wide range of positions including counselor, science teacher, coach, curriculum d...
SEELEY LAKE - Developers of a proposed 72-unit RV Park held their neighborhood meeting at the Seeley Lake Community Council's Nov. 11 meeting. Owner Brandon Grosvenor and Paul Forsting of Territorial Landworks, the company hired to design the project, presented the proposed park. A little over a year ago the pair had presented a similar proposal but it was never turned into Missoula County. They needed to redo their neighborhood meeting to start the "clock ticking" again. Forsting said the...
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley-Swan Hospital District Board learned more about the new doctor that will be starting at the Seeley-Swan Medical Center next month and discussed the proposed RV Park with adjacent landowner Dave Stewart at their Nov. 12 meeting. Partnership Health Center hired Dr. Stephen Humpal to fill the vacant doctor position at the Seeley-Swan Medical Center. He will start with PHC Dec. 16 in Missoula. There will be a community Open House Meet & Greet with Humpal at the Medical Center from 4 – 5 p.m. Jan. 7. He will also be at the...
SEELEY LAKE – Workers in orange vests with the letters “BID” on them picking up litter in downtown Missoula prompted Missoula County Commissioner Josh Slotnick to learn a little about Business Improvement Districts (BID). It also led him to ask the question, could a BID be used to benefit Seeley Lake? Slotnick reached out to Seeley Lake Community Council Chair Klaus von Sutterheim who invited him to present the idea at the Oct. 14 Council meeting. While the idea came from a commissioner, forming a BID is entirely a decision of the local prope...
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Elementary School board approved Seeley Lake ROCKS installing a permanent light and temporary storage unit for the Ice Skating Rink this winter. The board also discussed an estimated $51,456 reduction in next year’s budget based on declining enrollment and the lack of funding for preschool next year. Seeley Lake ROCKS board members Garry Swain, Scott Eggeman and Mike Lindemer presented on the Ice Skating Rink. They were all encouraged by the use that the rink received last year from the students at the school and...
SWAN VALLEY - US Forest Service and Missoula County Projects Department representatives presented on the Mid-Swan Restoration Project and the new county tool for building permits at the Swan Valley Community Council meeting Oct. 15. Chair Ken Donovan also provided information regarding the Holland Lake Day Use agreement that is being negotiated between the US Forest Service and Swan Valley Community Foundation. Team leader of the US Forest Service Mid-Swan Restoration and Wildland Urban Interface Project Rachel Feigley presented a brief...
SWAN VALLEY –Swan Valley School Board covered a lot of ground making several decisions at their Oct. 9 meeting. The doors and windows have arrived and the Matthew Brothers just received the required permits to remodel the front portal entry to the school. Construction will get underway soon. Board Chair John Mercer presented the board with a Draft Board Action Plan for 2019-2020. He is still missing a couple of the board evaluation forms so he is waiting to incorporate them. Mercer said this is the first time the school has had a c...
DEER LODGE - Representatives of the northern areas of Powell County said they would like a board to govern the ambulance service. This would provide them representation and the return of some of their tax money from the new ambulance levy to the fire districts through which the three quick response units (QRUs) of the county operate. They would also like to see some of the tax money go to the Lincoln Ambulance Service which responds to many calls in northern Powell County. But Powell County Commissioner Rem Mannix said he didn’t think all of t...
SEELEY LAKE –Seeley Lake Sewer District Board received public comment on their attorney’s denial of a citizens petition, discussed their proposed Rules and Regulations (R&R), worked through a final draft of the by-laws and approved an interlocal agreement with Missoula County at their Sept. 19 board meeting. In public comment, District resident Franny Trexler read a letter to the board regarding her frustration with the way District Attorney Jon Beal handled a petition for a referendum she turned in to the Missoula County Elections Office. The...
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Fire District Board approved a $8,500 salary increase for Fire Chief Dave Lane at their Sept. 10 meeting. This was around half of what the Chief requested on the basis of the state average for fire chiefs, what he has accomplished since becoming the chief mid-April 2018 and his qualifications. Lane’s annual salary was $55,000. In Montana, the average entry chief position is paid $50,000 and a senior chief is $88,000. Fire department paramedics make between $70,000-$110,000. Lane was given a $5,000 raise at six mon...
MISSOULA – At public hearing Sept. 5, the Missoula County Commissioners unanimously approved Resolution 2019-106 due to insufficient protest. The resolution changed the boundaries of the Rural Special Improvement District 282 around Lindbergh Lake and levied the RSID 282 property owners $73,176.29 to maintain the Lindbergh Lake bridge. The RSID 282 was created Jan. 12, 1978 for the purpose of constructing a bridge across the Swan River at the outlet of Lindbergh Lake. There was no termination date set for RSID 282 and Missoula County owned t...
SWAN VALLEY - Swan Lake District Ranger Chris Dowling gave updates on maintenance work completed on the District and led a discussion about the day use fee at Holland Lake at the Swan Valley Community Council meeting Aug. 19. Dowling said that maintenance on Holland Lake Road and Kraft Creek Road was completed July 25. The District shared costs and resources with Missoula County for the project. Council member Lacey McNutt asked how often this maintenance will take place or is it “one and done”? Dowling said there are lots of variables as to...
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Elementary School board approved the budget and made several new hires at their Aug. 19 and Aug. 23 meetings. Superintendent Daniel Schrock continues to look for opportunities to streamline processes and set SLE up for a great year. The school board unanimously adopted the 2019-2020 general budget of just over $1,431,181.06. District Clerk Heather Mincey said the mills went down this year lowering taxes for property owners. She also informed the board that there is about $23,000 uncollected District tax levy r...
SEELEY LAKE – In a split vote the Seeley Lake Sewer District Board passed a resolution to mandate connections to the sewer system as it is built at their Aug. 15 meeting. The board also approved the tax assessment method for the District’s annual administrative fee and officially opened public comment on the proposed Rules and Regulations (R&R). Board President Pat Goodover came out firing in his opening comments responding to people who have questioned his independence, ability to look at all sides of the issue and his role as president as...
SWAN VALLEY – The Swan Valley School Board approved budgets for the upcoming year, as well as contracts for educators and facility maintenance projects at their meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 6. The board approved the school’s adopted General Fund budget for the 2020 fiscal year at nearly $375,000. According to District Clerk Heather Mincey the budget last year was approximately $388,000. The budget reserves are currently at $35,000, however this is lower than it should be. “We have quite a bit of taxes that haven’t been paid yet,” said Mincey. ...
SWAN VALLEY - The Swan Valley Elementary School Board filled two vacant positions for the upcoming academic year. At a special meeting July 18, the board hired Chris Mauldin for the vacant kindergarten through second grade teaching position. At their special meeting July 30, they unanimously agreed to hire Ralph King as principal at a .2 Full Time Equivalent (FTE). Seeley Lake Elementary had already hired Mauldin for the 2019-2020 school year as a 0.2 FTE special education paraeducator before he took the K-2 position at Swan Valley School. He...
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Elementary School District Board of Trustees hired Dan Schrock July 31 at a special board meeting. In other business Bridget Laird will fill the open junior high teaching position. The Board interviewed three candidates including Schrock, Leland Stocker and Jody Welter July 29. A fourth candidate, Kevin St. John, was scheduled to be interviewed however he dropped out due to taking a job in Philipsburg. The board took public comment before discussing and deciding w...
SEELEY LAKE –The Seeley Lake Sewer District unveiled a resolution to mandate properties within the District to connect to the sewer as it is built at its July 18 board meeting. Board President Pat Goodover read the resolution at the meeting stating that the District’s attorney Jon Beal made edits to the version Goodover received just a half hour ahead of the meeting. The printed copies were already outdated. It took Goodover more than 13 minutes to read it in its entirety with the bulk of it explaining the reasons why the Board needed to mov...
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Fire Board adopted a resolution establishing and implementing a program to charge mitigation rates for fire and rescue emergency and non-emergency services. This is an effort to provide the service that Fire Chief Dave Lane feels the community deserves. Medical and ambulance services billing is established and there will be no change. Lane presented the board with the resolution for fire billing in preparation to transition to a different billing company. He said this is just the first step in making the transition...
SWAN VALLEY – The Swan Valley School Board approved a contract amendment with Seeley Lake Elementary to continue several necessary services at their regular meeting July 9. They also tabled a contract for principal submitted by Chris Stout, recently resigned superintendent from SLE who also served as the administrator for Swan Valley Elementary for the past several years. The Board was presented with an amended contract from the SLE School Board that removed the administrator services but continued to provide special education, counseling, d...
