Sorted by date Results 597 - 621 of 1188
SEELEY LAKE - Are we, Seeley Lake, in need of a centralized waste system we clearly can’t afford with so many questions still unanswered? If septic systems are affecting our ground water, thus the lake, is it all systems in all areas or just defective systems in need of replacement? Are all waste disposal systems around Seeley Lake functioning properly? Should properties on the lake have holding tanks that are periodically pumped out? Are the 500+ lots in the sewer district really the cause of the problems, or should the entire area north a...
We all know the saying, “A fed bear is a dead bear…” This is one that Montana Fish Wildlife & Parks Game Warden Bill Koppen knows all too well. Being a retired local law enforcement officer myself from New Jersey, I know all too well the frustration Game Warden Koppen feels on a daily basis, “Why won’t people listen.” A week or two back I spent time with Bill, vexation was at his highest I’ve seen in some time. He takes his job very serious as well he should - wild animals being fed with scrap human food, in a number of areas. Garbage is le...
SEELEY LAKE - I wrote a letter a couple of years ago urging the “Sewer Board” to change its name to the “Seeley Lake Water Improvement Board” because that is what it should be addressing. Since that time, the Sewer Board continues to push forward on the sewer, as if this is going to solve all the problems in the lake. From the meeting I attended on Thursday, it sounds like it will cost $40+ million to build the system, which will ultimately serve some 500 homes and businesses. The number $83,000 per lot was tossed around. In addition, the annua...
SEELEY LAKE - Eighty thousand dollars per lot – that is roughly what Sewer District residents will pay for the proposed sewer. If your home happens to sit on two lots you will may be obligated for $160,000 of the roughly $40 million, 40-year bond debt obligation. That works out to more than $100 per month per lot (after subsidies) for sewer service in one of the lowest income communities in the county. Subdistrict (Phase) 1 residents who will get a revised user agreement in the mail must just say NO. DO NOT SIGN THE AGREEMENT. If you do, you o...
SEELEY LAKE - The “information” packet mailed to you by the sewer board was not particularly vetted. While the cover letter did have the term “Draft User Agreement” in it a number of times, the text did not make it clear that you should not sign the draft and send it back. They also failed to put the word “DRAFT” in large letters diagonally across the draft. This is just a draft and you SHOULD NOT sign it and send it back in. BEFORE any final User’s Agreement can go out to you, the Phase 1 people, you have a RIGHT to have input in the formation...
SEELEY LAKE - The Seeley Lake Sewer Board has drawn up a draft “user agreement” for we sewer district residents. That’s the agreement between the board and we “customers” which must be in place before we receive sewer service. It is complicated, technical and full of legal jargon. We must understand it completely before we sign up. The board has called a meeting for 5:15 p.m., Thursday, June 6 at the Seeley Lake Elementary School. Sewer District residents should consider this important meeting a “must attend” event. We can ask questions and...
SEELEY LAKE - Steve and I want to commend our new Ranger Quinn Carver for the opportunity to work alongside the Forest Service this last Wednesday. Allowing for firewood gathering prior to the community clean-up day, helped with reducing the amount of material that had to be moved and stacked for the opening of the campground. Thank you for your vision. On another note, we were disappointed with the amount of help that came from the business community. I am sure that there was a breakdown in communication and am sure that this will be remedied...
SEELEY LAKE - Another senseless bear killing…why?? After being shot in the face by a shotgun and blinded, the bear was unable to see and stumbled around while someone laughed. The game warden was able to capture the bear and put it down to end its suffering. How very inhumane this was. How cruel. What was the reason for shooting this bear? Was it in your garbage, in your chicken house, attacking you or are you just another person who just likes to kill or hurt a bear? The ignorance and killing of bears must STOP! In my 27 years of living h...
SEELEY LAKE - After a winter of wrangling and struggling, the Seeley Lake Sewer Board seems no closer to an equitable funding formula for its sewer proposal than ever. The costs, in fact, seem to be going up and Missoula County officials have reneged on a pledge of more than a half-million dollars in engineering services for the construction of Phase l. That alone has resulted in an estimated cost increase of nearly three quarters of a million dollars. Sewer district residents have a constitutional right to know what the project will cost them...
SEELEY LAKE – Those of us living in Seeley Lake are very fortunate to have the services of the men and women who provide help in emergencies. Numerous times over the past several months I have had to call on them to assist with my husband’s many falls. Twice they arranged ambulance transport to the hospital due to his injuries. I always found the responders to be quite competent, friendly and efficient and they always have arrived within 15 minutes of my call. I don’t know what I would have done without their help and I can’t thank them en...
It can feel like a cosmic event when the government actually does something right. So I was excited to hear that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was rolling out a new rule to protect consumers from payday loans. Then, when I heard that those rules were being taken away before they even got out the door, I was furious. This represents everything people hate about Washington. The CFPB used to look out for the little guy, but now they are putting the profits of a sleazy industry with deep pockets above the needs of working people. Payday...
Several years ago I was involved in a severe single-car auto accident when a left front tire blew out on a country road. I was intentionally placed in a coma for a few months as my body worked to recover from multiple spinal fractures and other broken bones. My doctors treated me with opioids. Upon release from the hospital, I continued to control serious pain with Oxycodone daily for a few years. I never developed a high from the drug and no addiction. When I no longer needed it, I simply stopped taking it. Fast forward to today. Because a...
Representatives and Senators, HELENA - Senate Bill 260 was signed into law on April 3, 2019, establishing the Trenton Johnson Memorial Highway, for the sake of honoring the risks wildland firefighters accept in order to save the lives and property of others, and especially those who pay the ultimate price for their service, like Trenton did at only 19 years of age. Senate Bill 260 passed with a vote of 47-3 in the Senate, and 90-9 in the House. I can’t imagine the reasoning behind the “Nay” votes, but that is far from what bothers me the most....
An Open Letter to Montana State Legislators and Governor Bullock: As former and current Montana Public Service Commissioners, we represented Montanans across this great state in balancing the needs of utilities with the needs of consumers. We took our oath of office seriously and worked tirelessly to faithfully perform the job to which our constituents entrusted us. We often disagreed as Commissioners, and still rarely agree on many issues. Yet we are writing this letter because we share grave concerns about Senate Bill 331. While we may...
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...
This week, our republican and democratic state legislators notched a victory for Montanans. Working together with the Governor's office, they agreed on legislation that would permanently reauthorize Medicaid Expansion. This is good news for Montana and a triumph for bipartisanship. Republicans and Democrats were able to find common ground on this issue because both parties recognize that Medicaid Expansion works for Montana. Since its passage in 2015, the Montana HELP Act has provided affordable health care to more than 96,000 working...
In Robin Hood’s time the rich (government) were rich at the expense of someone else. Everything was limited. A coat might take 100s of hours to produce. The rich had food, others had to starve. Gold, silver and land belonged to the king (government) even coins of the realm were limited by primitive production methods. Rich or poor life wasn’t a party, but rich was a whole lot better. Skip forward. Understand that money has no value other than trust. It is a storage instrument. $1000.00 might buy a cow, television, gun, etc. Point being, the...
Traditional Medicaid was created to lend a hand to our most vulnerable populations. Unfortunately, the governor, Democrat legislators and more than a few Republican legislators are trying to prop up an entitlement program for the able-bodied, Medicaid Expansion. Expansion is the brainchild of the Obama Administration and the gateway to a socialist and broken single-payer healthcare system like Canada’s. Socialism is a repeatedly failed ideology (Venezuela) and destroys the principles of freedom and liberty that have made America great and that...
Sexual assault knows no boundaries of age, race or social class. It is a plague on our society, endangering people from all walks of life. For more than two decades, my professional career focused on helping survivors of sexual assault in various ways: hearing stories of violence as a YWCA domestic violence advocate; seeing the immediate physical and emotional harm caused to survivors as a registered nurse; helping survivors seek justice through the court system as a deputy county attorney and also as an attorney representing crime victims; as...
The current Republican majority in the state legislature has been proud in following its idea of no new or increased taxes. And they have expressed initial satisfaction in “cutting fat” from various department budgets while “retaining indispensable state services.” The Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) is one agency especially targeted for the Republican budget treatment, as it is the largest agency in the state government. By defunding over 100 DPHHS positions, which have remained vacant for more than a year, the Republi...
SEELEY LAKE - If you have been unable to attend a sewer meeting since November 2018, you will never know what has gone on if you read the notes taken at the meetings. They do not give you any detailed information. I know the past president made sure the minutes were detailed for the public to read and be informed. I recently spoke with the sewer’s lawyer asking him about information on the Users’ Agreement. He said he couldn’t share with me, as it was a confidential matter. He said he edited the agreement and sent it back to the board, assum...
Why should someone who works and cannot afford insurance pay for the insurance of someone else who does not work at all? Continuing to fund Medicaid Expansion with tax revenue from Montana's struggling workers lacks real compassion. Try not to confuse Medicaid with Medicaid Expansion. Medicaid already covers profound disabilities and people who truly cannot enter the work force. Medicaid Expansion on the other hand is a deceptively named redistribution scheme that takes taxpayer money to give healthcare to nearly 100,000 other Montanans; many...
Editor, Without access to broadband internet, students are unable to keep up in the classroom, patients are denied the promise of telemedicine tools and rural businesses are locked out of the global economy. Thankfully, Senator Daines stood up for rural America when he wrote a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) about the issue this week. In the letter, Senator Daines asked the FCC to remove the regulatory barriers holding TV white spaces back – a technology that wirelessly delivers broadband connectivity to underserved c...
There are rivers and streams every angler holds dear. We wince when their names are mentioned in public, fearing that the word will get out on our secret honey hole and that our next fishing trip will feature fewer trout and more people prodding its banks. For me, the North Fork of the Blackfoot River is such a place. It’s a place I don’t even like to mention because the fishing is that good. However, I care far more about protecting this water than keeping its publicity to a minimum. This is why, against my fishing instinct, I publicly urg...
It’s helpful to be at the same line of work long enough to be able to be proven wrong. I’ve been working with NAMI Montana to improve Montana’s mental illness treatment system for the past ten years. We’ve been really active on the local, state and national levels. That amount of work has brought plenty of opportunities to be wrong and we haven’t been able to avoid them all. One of the biggest times that I was wrong was on Medicaid Expansion during the 2015 legislative session. NAMI Montana fully supported Medicaid Expansion, but I personall...
