Sorted by date Results 893 - 917 of 1183
SEELEY LAKE - For the volunteer members of the Seeley Lake Rural Fire Department there is nothing more important than the community we serve. Undoubtedly, the resignation of Chief Bob Vanden Heuvel left a significant amount of uncertainty in the future management of the Department. We wish to thank Chief Bob for his dedication and unselfish support of the Seeley Lake and surrounding communities over the past few years. Members of the Department met Tuesday night, Oct. 24 to discuss operations moving forward. As fellow members of the community,...
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 - I’ve been trying to work up a sheet of information, that anyone might understand, regarding the actual costs for constructing the proposed sewer. I obtained the only currently available project budget. That document consists of 2.5 pages and has two headings, “Collection System Phase 1” and “SBR (that’s the treatment mechanism that has a designed life of 20 years), Groundwater Discharge Phase 1”. There seems to be a problem stemming from the organization, or rather disorganization, of the materials that is keeping me from being...
SEELEY LAKE – I don’t believe that the current proposal by the Seeley Lake Sewer Board makes any sense. However, I realize that there’s been a tremendous amount of effort for many years by members to find a solution. Now, let’s assume that there is a current or future water quality issue. I don’t feel that there’s been nearly enough nor appropriate test data collected, e.g. well and lake water integrity. There’s certainly enough money that has been collected from residents to do a more diligent investigation. The facts as I know them: • No one...
SEELEY LAKE - As some of you may know after an extended period of time off, our chief resigned at our district board meeting held Oct. 17 which was effective immediately. We want to thank Bob for his last three years of service to the community and wish him well and success in his future endeavors. Moving ahead, I want to assure everyone that operationally nothing has changed and business and emergency response will go on as usual. We have more than 20 members on the department that are firefighters and most of them are also cross-trained as...
SEELEY LAKE – Due to the recent resigning of the Chief and the constant turmoil that this fire district seems to be in, it is with great regret that I will be resigning from the Rural Fire District maintenance position, effective two weeks from Oct. 24....
SEELEY LAKE – Losing Bob as our fire chief is an unfortunate occurrence and losing our fire chief is sad. Best of luck to Bob in his future endeavors. However, just because a few of the members walked out, that does not mean they resigned from the unit. The fact that they volunteered to begin with means they care about the community they live in and they would not intentionally leave the community short-handed. Keep in mind though that we do not know all the details and to jump to conclusions and get worked up is not going to help matters. I...
SEELEY LAKE - Greg Robertson revised his proposed sewer rate schedule at the board meeting Thursday, Oct. 19. The problem is that he moved from one tremendously warped method (that had over 100 residences labeled as “businesses”) to another equally unfair approach. Under his newest scheme, ALL – be they high or low users, business or resident, year-round or seasonal, prosperous or low-income residents, owners of occupied or vacant parcels—will now pay the same for both debt service and operations and maintenance (O&M). Robertson seems to look...
Regarding the letters to the editor concerning the sewer project during the past four months, Don Larson states that, “All the 20 against the project were by residents who live and vote in the Sewer District.” I guess Don needs to look more closely at the Sewer District map, as the primary residences of two of the most vocal individuals opposed to the sewer are in southern Montana and Arizona. Referencing those who wrote in support of the project, Larson writes, “Only seven live and vote in the District.” Wrong again, Don. I personally know ma...
SEELEY LAKE - Rumor has it that critical engineering documents, revealing the design, actual plan components and budget for the proposed sewer, are finally in the hands of the sewer board. Can that group demonstrate the integrity, maturity and confidence needed to provide constituents the time to access, review and develop questions regarding their proposed project now that “full” engineering information has been delivered to them? While each property owner (and interested renter) may not feel fully qualified to analyze the entire set of doc...
SEELEY LAKE – A group of approximately 110 well-owner, landowners in the airport area east of Seeley Lake are concerned about the location of the proposed sewer system. We all take our water from private, individual wells and we are concerned about the possible pollution from the treatment plant which is proposed upstream and upflow from our properties. As we understand it, medical wastes will not be removed from the millions of gallons of treated water released from the plant, once fully operational. If true, these wastes will inevitably f...
SEELEY LAKE - Over the past year, since the Seeley Lake Sewer Project was defeated in the election last fall, I have read several articles about how much the lake is polluted and how the proposed sewer project is going to miraculously fix that. The two letters to the Editor last week point out the fallacy of that and what the real truth is…. SEELEY LAKE IS NOT POLLUTED. Furthermore, the claims that water quality in the lake has diminished in the last few years are unsubstantiated by the data and there is no historical baseline data to c...
SEELEY LAKE - Many of my friends and neighbors along Boy Scout Road and C Street are under the impression that the lake is severely polluted. They have all written letters regarding this theory. I took the time this summer to go to the Seeley Lake Water District and printed out all the information about all the water testing that has been done regarding the sewer. The tests for nitrates in the lake, which the Board paid for, are very low. The average being .06 mg/l. A full 10 represents the standard for issues with drinking water. The...
The Seeley Lake Ranger District would like to thank everyone for your patience, dedication and hard work on the Rice Ridge and Liberty Fires. So many individuals contributed to the success of the firefighting efforts that it is impossible to comprehensively list all of those who participated in the daily briefings, cooperators meetings, worked out on the line, or supported the many functions that were in place. However, I do want to specifically mention the residents of Seeley Lake, Ovando and the associated communities; wildland and...
SEELEY LAKE - The self-created mission for the sewer district clearly establishes why the board’s current proposal is so out-of-line. The statement introduces itself appropriately: “to assist the community in determining the need and cost for a centralized sewer system.” But, from that point on, the goals and subsequent board actions headed in a different direction. Rather than establishing NEED by developing a plan for a comprehensive study and analysis of environmental factors, the board settled for doing some water testing on FEWER SITES...
SEELEY LAKE - The Pathfinder has published 41 letters to the editor about the proposed sewer in the past four months...June through September. Twenty-one have been for the project and 20 have been against it. All the 20 against the project were by residents who live and vote in the Sewer District. Of the 21 in support, only seven live and vote in the District. Curious...
SEELEY LAKE - I recently received a response from Congressman Gianforte that indicated he was doing his best to reduce federal expenditures but that it looked like with the hurricane and flood expenses of Florida and Texas, along with the fire expenses in Montana, he was going to have to vote for an increase in the debt ceiling. He said our national debt is nearly $20 trillion and growing. Interest payments are reaching nearly $200 billion. I know the politically correct thing is to praise the firefighters and their “putting their life on t...
SEELEY LAKE - The Seeley Lake Sewer Board has been assessing district residents $47,000 for the past 13 years for “study” of the sewer situation. That’s a total of more than $600,000 of taxpayer money. Now add the cost of the services the Missoula County Commissioners have donated through an interlocal agreement signed in 2011. They’re easily a couple hundred thousand dollars and include a hundred thousand dollar “loan.” These services include the Public Works Directors time...between 10 and 30 hours a week as well as that of an administrat...
SEELEY LAKE - The trio opposed to the sewer should change their name to Citizens Against Sensible Wastewater Solutions, for that is what they’ve turned out to be. “Citizens for” just doesn’t fit their profile, though it’s typical these days to adopt a high-minded name – and then do the opposite. And while we’re seeking truth, as they say they are, let’s prepare for the last mile. Many of the old warnings fit so well here and now; don’t [urinate] in your own pot, don’t [defecate] in your own mess kit. But if the trio dupes too many into prote...
MISSOULA - When will the coaching staff be shaken up at the University of Montana football? Enough is enough already, with losses, loss of players and the latest, our very good rookie quarterback who was nothing more than fed to the wolves. I wrote a Letter to the Editor before about our head coach. Head coach? What a joke. Check out the injury list, losses, embarrassment to the team and the University. I won’t mention players names who have been sacrificed and fed to the wolves by a head coach who no doubt ‘prayed for someone to make him ‘lo...
I wrote this letter nearly 30 years ago and it was published in the Kalispell Daily Inter Lake newspaper – please read it. “I just finished reading in the Daily Inter Lake where farmers who lost 40 percent of their crops are eligible for federal disaster funds. What I would like to know is, when will we loggers be paid for the loss of our crops? I am talking about the millions of board feet of blowdown left to rot in the woods; the millions of board feet of dead and dying, bug-killed timber; and last, but not least, billions of board feet of ov...
SEELEY LAKE - I want to thank the Northern Rockies Incident Management team for dropping by my house and sharing maps and information about the Rice Ridge Fire. I live on Woodworth Road and the fire was burning right behind my house. They would stop everyday and take time to sit with me on the porch over a cup of tea and muffins and explain the fire situation to me. They made me feel better that they would protect my buildings. Everyone I met was so nice and polite. Thank you for the certificate of appreciation. All the firefighters deserve a...
The politicians have been milking the patriotism cow for some time, at the same time they want to ignore veterans’ needs. As soon as some citizen on the street or representative in Congress or the white house starts espousing patriotism, a big red flag goes up in my mind. “Patriotism” is the first refuge of carpetbaggers, and it trips my gag reflex. True patriots are not shouting their esprit from the rooftops or in front of microphones. True patriots are quietly doing patriotic things and they ask for no recognition for doing what seems natur...
My name is Mona Bennett, aka MontanaNana (Addy Trevino’s Grandma). As I approached the carnival fundraiser for my granddaughter my heart was truly touched. From several blocks away I watched people all going to one place with one goal; to support Addy. Cancer is a horrible thing for anyone to go through but the people of Seeley Lake have certainly helped ease the pain. I thank you all for that. The love and support from this community is amazing. I am so grateful and proud that my kids live in Seeley Lake, Montana. Again, thank you all so m...
Well it looks like we may finally exiting the fire season of 2017. Many questions are on the minds of the people that reside in this area of the nation. The first and easiest question is how did it start? The answer to that is simply a lightning strike. Now the questions become much more complicated. I have found the answers given by the ‘EXPERTS’ leave a lot to be desired. There are three things necessary for a fire. Oxygen Fuel Ignition source In our forest we, not surprisingly, have the first two in abundance and Mother Nature supplied the...
