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Independently owned since 1905
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Nick Lawyer was born at Clark Fork Valley Hospital, and 43 years later, he is stepping into a leadership role for the community medical facility. Lawyer will take over as chief of staff for the medical staff at CFVH in 2025. Lawyer recently completed the Healthcare Excellence in Leadership Program (HELP) through the Montana Medical Association, gaining valuable leadership skills that he is excited to use in his new position. "It's billed as a leadership development course for medical leaders,...
The 2024 Christmas on Main Street parade grand marshal has been busy since moving to Thompson Falls in 2022. You may have met Rob Viens through his choral group, the Clark Fork Valley Singers, but he's involved in many projects throughout the community. The Sanders County Chamber of Commerce chose Viens as the grand marshal to lead the community parade next weekend. Chelle Mitchell, secretary for the chamber, nominated Viens for the honor. "He directs music for the Thompson Falls Main Street...
Ronda Wakefield of Thompson Falls was recently honored as the Montana HR Leader of the Year by the Montana State Council of the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM). "It honestly was a complete surprise, right up until the time they said my name," Wakefield said of the honor. "It was an incredible honor to be recognized with such an amazing group of HR professionals. I consider myself so blessed, not a day goes by that I dread going to work." Wakefield was one of nine nominees for the...
This month I was asked to participate in the post election audit process for the county. I’ve been on the other side of the table for every part of local elections, observing everything from voting machine testing to ballot counting by machine and hand counts, to recounts and audits. But I’ve never been anything more than an observer. With the post election audit, the Secretary of State’s office literally rolls a dice to determine which races and which precincts will be hand counted. Then the local elections office has election workers sit i...
A cast of 28 local actors and a crew of nine are preparing for the best Christmas pageant ever. It says so in the name of the production, “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever: The Musical.” The musical will be presented at three events throughout the county in December and is being coordinated by Rob Viens of Thompson Falls, the Stage and Musical Director. “My first experience with the play was in 1992 and everybody fell in love with it,” Viens said. The play is based on the book by Barbara Robinson, from which she created a stage version. “The st...
The Sanders County bookmobile will be featured on an upcoming episode of “Backroads of Montana” on PBS. The episode will premiere Monday, Dec. 2, at 7 p.m. The show has aired on Montana PBS since 1991, and the crew travels across Montana visiting unique people and places. According to a press release, “every month in Sanders County, the Bookmobile makes the rounds to every community in its northwest region. We roll along with this library on wheels as it reaches bookworms of all ages.” Bookmobile director Jessica Gayton said she had a great t...
An extreme makeover is planned for Wild Goose Landing Park in Thompson Falls. As part of its ongoing relicensing process with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), last week NorthWestern Energy presented plans for renovating the park on the east end of Thompson Falls. The current license for the Thompson Falls dam expires December 31, 2025, Andy Welch, manager of NorthWestern Energy's Hydro License Compliance, told the crowd of about 30 people at the Rex Theater last Thursday. The...
Thompson Falls Main Street and the Sanders County Chamber of Commerce are gearing up for the annual community Christmas celebration. The theme of this year’s Christmas on Main Street is Old World Christmas. Several fun and festive events are planned for December 6-7, 2024. “We are truly thankful for all our community volunteers working to create such a wonderful event,” said Kayla Mosher, chairperson of the Thompson Falls Main Street board. For information on any of the activities, contact Thompson Falls Main Street at (406) 827-0487 or email...
Twenty-two military veterans from the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard were on hand at Plains School last Monday for the school's Veterans Day Luncheon. "It's always an honor to be recognized for what we did. I didn't do much, but I did it. Both of my brothers were in, so I thought I should do my part," said Betty Meyer of Paradise, a World War II veteran and at 100 years, the oldest guest at the event. Retired Army Lt. Col. Samantha Bebb said she was honored to be...
A community fundraiser for a local family became a countywide tribute to a longtime pastor last week. Pastor Charlie Denson of the Assembly of God church in Thompson Falls passed away October 31 after a brief battle with brain cancer. Denson was pastor at the Thompson Falls church for 38 years. The church community originally scheduled the Nov. 12 fundraiser to help with medical expenses. When Denson passed, it became a fundraiser for his family. Bruce Donaldson, who has been a member of the...
The Thompson Falls City Council met last week to discuss various projects in the city. Mayor Rusti Leivestad, in the ongoing discussion about flashing crosswalk signs, stated in a report of the street and alleys committee that she met with the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT). MDT told her that in order to add crosswalks, the average daily traffic needs to be about 14,000 vehicles, and the latest speed study in the city showed about 5,000 daily vehicles. The mayor said the Thompson Falls Woman’s Club continues to show interest in t...
Tiny Bees Daycare owner Holly Sanders (which we wrote about earlier this month) is also part of the Falls Chapel Events nonprofit organization. Sanders said the group does community outreach and offers free events for families. They do movies, a Valentine’s dinner, a fall harvest dinner and kids carnival at Falls Chapel. They are even planning a murder mystery dinner on January 3. The events are free for the community, though the group also takes donations. Last Saturday at the Fall Forest Festival at Ainsworth park, the church had a c...
When nearly half of your team is seniors, the final game of the season is bittersweet. Hot Springs' six seniors played the final football game of their high school career last weekend as the Savage Heat lost to Box Elder 57-54 in the 6-player semifinal game. "They've been in the playoffs every year, but haven't been to a semifinal game," Hot Springs Coach Jim Lawson said of the 2024 seniors. "They had been working their whole career to get to a game like this. It's not easy getting to where you...
Last week I wrote about the miles and miles that the Hot Springs football team has traveled this season. It's definitely a commitment to play 6-man football in Montana. Thanks to assistant coach Anderw Leichtnam for pointing out a key mistake in my map last week. The Savage Heat also traveled to Big Sandy this season. The mileage below is distances from town to town straight from Google Maps. According to Coach Jim Lawson, with stops, etc., the team went about 4,400 miles this season and racked...
Thompson Falls High School welcomed more than two dozen veterans and their family members on Monday for a special luncheon and Veterans Day ceremony. Mike Bruse, a veteran of the U.S. Marines and a former teacher at Thompson Falls, served as emcee for the event, welcoming the veterans and thanking them, as well as the students, school and kitchen staff. The kitchen staff served baked chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, fruit cocktail, rolls and a special apple crisp dessert. As the veterans...
I only made it to one Veterans Day event with it being on Monday, but it was still an endearing day. Thompson Falls High School put on a lovely assembly with the choir and band. They also served lunch to veterans and their families. I was impressed with the students who helped serve the veterans their meal. There probably was a bit of coaching from school staff, but they thanked each veteran for their service as they served their meal. More students then came in to sit amongst the veterans during the performances. I heard students again...
Two Sanders County 4-H members were recently honored as top exhibitors in the lam carcass division. The Montana State University Extension Service, the Montana 4-H and FFA Programs and Montana Woolgrowers sponsor the program. The Montana Youth Certified Fair Lamb Contest is ranked in two divisions on a statewide level, carcass and ultrasound. John McNamara earned first place in the carcass division. His 115-pound lamb yielded a Choice+ quality carcass with .05-inch back fat and 4.15 square inch...
In support of Red Ribbon Week, an event was held at First Baptist Church in Thompson Falls on October 26. Karren McKinzie with Sanders County Public Health coordinated the event with the Clark Fork Valley Elks. The event included a coloring contest with nearly 150 entries from five school across the county. The Rex Theater donated a movie ticket, drink and popcorn for each winner. McKinzie, as part of the presentation, talked to kids and adults about alcohol use and vaping issues in schools....
Volunteers recently completed installing the playground equipment at Ainsworth Park. The equipment was donated by Montana Dakota Services of Thompson Falls.. Pictured are from left, Dave and Norena Mahler, Mitch and Mary Noack and Curt and Chery Kegel. After constructing the playgorund equipment, volunteers spread mulch and installed plastic edging. At Thompson Falls Main Street's Fall Festival, dozens of youngsters enjoyed the first play on the new park feature....
The football season just keeps getting sweeter for the Hot Springs Savage Heat. The team is headed to Box Elder this weekend for the 6-player semifinal round after beating Highwood last weekend in Hot Springs 46-8. Senior quarterback Nick McAllister is excited that the Savage Heat get to continue their season. "This team is a really close knit family. It's like a group of brothers," he explained. "This has been one of the funnest years." As last Saturday's contest in Hot Springs kicked off, it...
Six-player football teams put on the miles during the season. With the trip to Box Elder this weekend, Hot Springs will have racked up over 3,500 miles this season on a bus. They started the season in Centerville (514 miles round trip), then went to White Sulphur Springs (532 miles), Gardiner (711), Alberton (176), Hysham (991) and now are headed to Box Elder (658). Add it all up and that's 3,582 miles. If Hot Springs wins this weekend and goes on to the state championship game, they will play...
UPDATED 1:28 p.m. Wednesday, November 6 When the ballot counting completed about 1 a.m. on Wednesday morning, a total of 8,107 ballots had been counted from Sanders County voters in Tuesday's general election. As of Tuesday morning, there were 9,218 registered voters in the county, resulting in a voter turnout of 87.95%, a new record for the county. County elections staff said that more than 85 people had been at the courthouse Tuesday to register to voter and cast ballots. Among notable races,...
Click "View PDF" to see Sanders County Election results by precinct....
Sanders County has a new county attorney. Jania Hatfield was sworn in Thursday by County Commissioner Tony Cox and started her new position last week. The county attorney position was open after Megan Hansen, who was appointed earlier this year, recently resigned. Prior to moving to Sanders County, Hatfield served as a deputy county attorney for Broadwater County in Townsend. She also previously worked in Helena for the state Office of the Public Defender, and has worked for the state's Child...
Sanders County recently signed on to participate in the 20th Judicial District Adult Drug Court (JDADC). The court has been active in Lake County since 2016. The program was created to restructure judicial participation in cases involving chemically dependent offenders. The goal of the JDADC, according to District Judge Molly Owen, is to ensure participants will have more success in maintaining law-abiding behavior, reducing the number and duration of relapses while increasing the duration of their sobriety, and increasing their life skills....
