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In the July 27 edition of the Seeley Swan Pathfinder, I wrote a letter to the editor and failed to signify that I was writing as a Swan Valley resident. I was not writing as a Swan Valley Regional Planning Committee (SRVPC) member or on behalf of the SVRPC. I apologize for this mistake....
SEELEY LAKE - I attend Seeley Lake Sewer District Board meetings when I am in residence and read about them when I’m away. The Board did a lackluster job of getting information out last year and the opposition did a great job of distributing misinformation. In this community, like many others, rumor travels swiftly and easily, often trampling facts along the way. This year, the Board is providing facts professionally, while the opposition continues to present opinion as fact. Several other tactics are employed; distraction is a favorite. C...
SEELEY LAKE - I guess the word “deplorable” could be used to describe me. As with any definition comes a perception of how that word is applied. Concern for the environment and caring for nature are not usually associated with today’s’ definition of that word! But in reality, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. I have been utilizing the recreational opportunities of the Seeley Lake area for more than 50 years and I am acutely aware of how the water quality has been affected by the lifestyles and growth of the Seeley Lake populatio...
Human rights in China have not gotten any better. In June 2016, Congress passed House Resolution 343, condemning the Chinese government for sanctioning the pillaging of organs from Falun Gong and other prisoners of conscience. Falun Gong is a Buddha School teaching whose principles are truthfulness, compassion and tolerance. On July 20, 1999, over 18 years ago, this teaching was outlawed by the Chinese communist government under the leadership of Jiang Zemin. Falun Gong was becoming too popular and he wanted it eliminated. In 2006, investigator...
We want to take this time to thank you for embracing us with open arms and accepting us as community members from our first day in this beautiful place. It has been great to develop relationships with so many of you, learn from you, work with you and grow with you over the three years we have been in this community. Until we meet again, we bid a fond farewell, to all of you who live in this lovely place. “I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginni...
Andi Bourne wrote an excellent but incredibly sad Editor’s Note on behalf of the young firefighter that we lost. I, too, have several years of fire experience, all on the Lolo National Forest: my first three as one of the first women in Helitack, then a fourth as engine crew foreman until a nearly fatal accident ended my career as an active firefighter and for five more seasons in fire related work – conducting industrial fire inspections on logging and mining operations (1975-spring of 1985). The year of my near fatal accident (1979) the...
SEELEY LAKE - Polson is developing a $17.6 million sewer upgrade after the EPA came in and levied a $40,000 fine on the district for exceeding its wastewater discharge limits. Sewer bills will jump from $20 per month to $60, and that’s for 2,000 residents. The State of Montana loaned Polson $14.6 million. Lincoln is upgrading its two lift stations at a cost of $300,000 per station and that sewer station serves about 400 users. That’s after 15 years of use. Their sewer rate increase will depend on how much money it can get from the state. Lin...
SEELEY LAKE - I recall the U.S. Forest Service running fire camp operations from the Seeley Lake Elementary three times for local forest fires. The Forest Service pays a fee to rent the facility while the Seeley Lake Elementary School is not in operation. The school gets a little financial shot in the arm and the local school district taxpayer should see those funds go into the facility. Mr. Stout said in a past Pathfinder story that the school has been putting off projects to the facility for 15 years and the parking lot needs to be repaved....
SEELEY LAKE - The five business men on the Seeley Lake Sewer Board and their general manager Greg Robertson, henceforth called B/gm, have now conjured up at least three purposely twisted ways to try to get their sewer proposal past the constituents of the district! First, the B/gm plan to “SHOW SUPPORT” for the sewer by using a reverse technique of not actually proving any measurable support. Under their scheme for an up-coming “Notice and Protest” event, they are requiring a count on solely signed opponents to “prove” that the board has b...
SWAN VALLEY - I am grateful to the Seeley Swan Pathfinder for the opportunity to address a topic under discussion in Swan Valley Regional Planning Committee: the edits to the Swan Valley Regional Plan by Colleen Dowdall. I wish to emphasize that the edits to the Swan Valley Regional Plan by Colleen Dowdall, a Missoula attorney, represent the comments of a local resident. The fact that she rewrote the entire plan does not change the fact that these are the comments of one of the more than 60 written comments that were presented to the Swan...
SEELEY LAKE - Recent information misstated that a “once-in-a-lifetime” grant will pay two-thirds of sewer costs. It won’t. It is only for Phase 1. Later phases 2, 3, and 4 each need to re-apply for any grant money. This should especially concern anyone in Phases 2, 3, and 4. There is no guarantee grant money will be available in amounts large enough to allow construction and reasonable rates. Worse, there are indications to the contrary and a growing chance later phases may be without a sewer but forever ‘on the hook’ paying for Phase 1,...
I would like to extend my heartfelt appreciation and thanks to the Seeley Fire and Ambulance crews for their prompt, courteous and professional response in regard to my emergency call Saturday evening. They were a blessing. In fact, after the incident and I was calm, I was sorry to depart to Missoula to get put back together. I would have preferred to have had them in for dinner and drinks. They helped turn a serious injury into a light-hearted laugh session. Again, thank you to: Shelly, Bob and the other two fellas whose names I never got. I...
SEELEY LAKE - The letters last week on what to do about the proposed sewer project have stirred renewed interest from the community. This is wonderful. The more input from residents the better. Senator Tester just gave the Seeley Lake Sewer District $600,000 which is barely significant considering the overall cost. This will basically finance the political push for the Seeley Lake system and further negate the wishes of most residents. That money could be better spent cleaning up the lakes. One writer stated that the proposed sewer system...
SWAN VALLEY - As a resident of the beautiful Swan Valley, I am deeply disturbed by the Lake County Conservation District’s proposal to transfer the management of 60,000 acres of the Flathead National Forest. The proposal calls for the establishment of a “Conservation Forest” to produce timber revenue for LCCD. This proposal is a direct attack on our public lands and we cannot stand for it in our own backyard. Despite many legal and logistical holes, the lands earmarked for the potential Conservation Forest are disjointed and scattered throu...
SEELEY LAKE - For 28 years I’ve watched the Seeley Lake sewer project tossed around like a yo-yo! I have seen Sewer Board members quit their positions to be replaced with other dreamers. Because of lack of significant grants, the Board has to rely on assessments from the property owners to keep the dream going on. Please, Sewer District people, fight against all future Sewer Board proposals to create ways and schemes to gain funds for Board use. Seeley Lake is not a suitable place for a trial and error project....
SEELEY LAKE - People are asking what a new sewer system will cost the residents of Seeley Lake. Like my friends and neighbors here, I look forward to hearing those details when they’re available. In the meantime, I am writing to talk about the costs of not building a sewer system. As the owner of Rovero’s, I have the pleasure of serving our beautiful community cradled between two mountain wilderness areas and a stunning chain of lakes. As Seeley Lake has grown, so has Rovero’s. Two years ago, my engineers informed me that our heavily used...
SEELEY LAKE - The Seeley Lake Sewer Board distributed a flyer from Lindey’s parking lot during the Fourth of July parade which contained some error in fact and some unsubstantiated assumptions. The Board must work harder to give us accurate information so we sewer district residents can make an intelligent decision. 1. The flyer states a sewer would reduce the cost of housing when in fact it would INCREASE substantially the cost of housing. How can the cost of housing decrease when expenses are increasing? Residents can expect monthly bills wel...
SEELEY LAKE – I think voters voted against the sewer because so many questions were not answered. Like how much would the monthly cost be to users? It was quoted from $50-$192 a month, that is a huge margin. We need definite numbers. Then we were told the other four districts or phases may never be added to the sewer. Then how much would a few of us be paying? I think everyone should be put on at the same time, that way a lot of people are helping to pay for it, not just a few. An even better idea is to have every household in the Seeley L...
It appears that our most recently elected Secretary of State has revised his job description to read, “Persecutor of perceived voter fraud in Missoula County, Montana – only Missoula County.” According to his letter in the Missoulian, Corey Stapleton thinks a single instance of possible fraud constitutes the need for him to make sarcastic, mis-leading statements about the Missoula County Elections Administration’s ability to run an election. Let’s put a few publicly available facts on the table (something Corey failed to do): First, there wer...
SEELEY LAKE - How often have you had someone offer to pay most of the cost for an improvement to your property that will increase property value and help avoid costly upgrades in the future? I’ve never had that experience, but the USDA’s Rural Development fund is offering to pay about two-thirds of the cost of building a sewer system in Seeley Lake. That’s an incredible opportunity for our community. We should take advantage of this large grant and help ensure we remain an extremely desirable place to live and play. Let’s welcome and celebra...
SEELEY LAKE - Seeley Lake is named that for a reason. The lake is a jewel and is the iconic symbol of the town, one of the most important driving forces of the local economy. This wonderful lake is now endangered by pollution from groundwater tainted by the town’s septic systems. There are two options to deal with this: 1. Ignore the problem or 2. Put in a sewer system. The first option is what’s been done so far and the results speak for themselves – expanding oxygen-free “dead zones” in the lake, decreased lake water clarity and restricte...
SEELEY LAKE - This business of the sewer system in Seeley Lake has gotten out of hand. Voters declined to finance it with a bond issue which pretty much indicated our wishes about the system as it stands. The people who are behind this are somehow attempting a financial end run which would accomplish the same thing for their purposes. It would no doubt still saddle property owners with the same financial burden. I own the carwash in Seeley and subsidize it for a significant part of the year. There is the question of how the gray water the...
SEELEY LAKE – Our family and friends have enjoyed living on Seeley Lake for more than 50 years. It is a beautiful location with so many opportunities for year-round recreation and relaxation. The townspeople, shops, churches, restaurants, celebrations and more have endeared us to the community. Eight of our family members have graduated from the University of Montana so living in Seeley Lake was perfect for Griz games and events. Seeley Lake definitely needs a reliable sewer system not only to save our lovely lake from contamination but to a...
SEELEY LAKE - That is the question. Ah…summer at Seeley; sun, sand, swimming, sailing, skiing, surfing and the….sewer. That’s right, all that fun and a big decision too. That is why I have decided to dedicate some of my time this summer to help sort out facts from fiction regarding this important topic. I hope you will do the same. If you are a property owner in the Sewer District, you will have the opportunity to seal the fate of this controversial issue during the month of October. In the meantime, there will be lots of information being...
SEELEY LAKE - The Seeley Lake Sewer Board continues to ignore district residents’ desire to not pursue a central sewer. It is beyond me how the Board can void a legal election in which we said NO to the sewer project last December. I thought we had to vote on any bond debt we assume...isn’t this taxation without representation? I live in Sub-district 2. That is mostly the lakeshore homes and businesses west of Highway 83N. But I live EAST of the elementary school in (what the Board decided) is one of the lowest income areas of the sewer dis...
