Independently owned since 1905
Independently owned since 1905
Sorted by date Results 1051 - 1075 of 1087
In 1917, Carl and Oreta McCaughin celebrated Christmas with a new baby girl, Anita. One hundred years later finds Anita Wise (who goes by Carol) going strong and continuing to share her birthday with the baby Jesus. Nearly 20 members of her family traveled to the Clark Fork Valley Hospital Long Term Care in Plains to spend last Christmas and celebrate her 100th birthday party with Carol, who opened presents and visited with relatives that came from around the state to share the experience with...
Probably the biggest difference between a professional ballet class and the one that started in Plains two weeks ago is the "potty breaks." The beginner ballet class is part of the Plains After School Program, put on each Thursday by Heidi Schulze and Cassie Ducept. Every few minutes in last week's class, one of the 27 girls asked to use the restroom. The rest of the time, they were learning basic ballet moves and showing their own dance skills. "Many little girls dream of being a beautiful...
In response to the precarious shortage of manpower, the Plains Fire Department received the town council's blessing to officially adopt the Firefighter Incentive Program to draw needed volunteers. Each firefighter will receive $150 a year after accomplishing 30 hours of training and an additional $50 for 40 hours, according to Chief Anthony Young, who started with the department four years ago and took over as chief in January 2017. In addition, a person would get $10 per call up to $100 a year....
Getting a vehicle quickly repaired in Plains is sometimes a tough thing to do, but Ron Berry hopes to change that. Now there are five auto shops in Plains with the newest – Berry's Repair – open for business three weeks ago near the east end of Railroad Avenue in an old gas station. With less than a month under his belt with his new place, Berry said he works on an average of two to three vehicles every day, five days a week. "I think the customer displacement after the Plains Service Cen...
One Plains man has a 200-pound horse that's gaining weight everyday and he's not even feeding it. That's because he's making a steel horse, one of five that he hopes will be used to highlight Wild Horse Plains. Kenton Pies has been working on his metal horse since September and is about halfway done with the first one, which he plans to display somewhere in town to help raise enough funds to construct the rest of the herd. "It's called Wild Horse Plains by a lot of people and it would get a lot...
by Ed Moreth A group of people spent their Saturday knocking down both pigeons and pins and their only regret was not getting them all. They were clay pigeons and bowling pins and it was all part of the annual Plains Trap Club "Bowl 'n' Blast competition. In teams of four, 48 men and six women started out the early chilly morning at the trap club shooting at the disk targets. Each person went to the shooting line 20 times, 10 as a caller and 10 as backup, said Cookie Kunzer, who coordinated the...
There's a new owner of Revier Transportation, but one thing he won't have to do is pay for decals for a name change for his fleet of school buses. After 23 years, Larry Revier of Plains decided to retire and sell his school bus business to his son, Chad Revier, who officially took over in January. The elder Revier won't be totally retired. He's agreed to stay part-time to help his son with the business. "I've enjoyed it. I didn't want to be so old that I couldn't do anything when I retired,"...
Painting and drawing is just kid's stuff, but at Clark Fork Valley Hospital it's kid's stuff that helps make people feel better, according to Dr. Greg Hanson, the hospital president and CEO. "It's something they can focus on that's outside their illness; it simply gives them joy," Hanson said of the Sanders County Arts Council's Art on the Wall Student Show. The exhibit kicked off last Thursday evening with a reception, treats and musical entertainment in the hospital foyer. Hanson said the...
A young whitetail doe comes up empty after searching below the snow for food near Plains....
Members of the first town council meeting of the year in Plains had a busy night with more than a dozen items on their agenda, with Danny Rowan at his first council meeting as mayor. The fire and police department chiefs were both on hand, along with four of the five council members. Missing was anyone from the general public. Just the same, it was a busy night for the council. Three of them – Chris Allen, Joel Banham and Audrey Kolbeck – were sworn in by the mayor for new four-year terms. Cha...
A frigid Christmas Eve of five degrees makes the shrubbery look like glass along the Flathead River near the junction of Highways 200 and 135....
"I'm excited about it," said Danny Rowan a few minutes after he was sworn in as the new Plains mayor by then Mayor Greg Eitelberg. A small crowd of people showed up for the swearing in ceremony at Plains City Hall last Wednesday. Eitelberg served only one term and decided against going for a second one in order to help his wife take care of her ailing parents in Washington. Because no one registered to oppose Rowan last September, he was automatically the winner based on Plains Resolution 470, s...
Making a prize winning chili dish isn't kid's stuff, unless it's at the Assembly of God Church in Plains, where 11-year-old Darren "Bud" Standeford and his sister Kaylah Standeford took first and second place at the Church on the Move 5th Annual Chili Cook-off on New Year's Eve. The Standeford siblings were among six male and four female contestants in the contest, which ran from around 7-9 p.m. in the church coffee shop. Third place was also a youngster, Jeremiah Allen, 14, who joined with Scot...
Dropping eggs off the gymnasium roof at Plains High School was not a prank – it was done in the name of science. Plains High School maintenance supervisor Bill Hayen has been the official egg dropper for Carl Benson's physics class "Egg Drop Project" for some 20 years. He's seen some interesting contraptions. "There are a lot of duties that come with this job, but this in a fun one," said Hayen, who dropped each student's project from the roof to the pavement below. The idea for the class was t...
The students of Plains School didn't spend their final day before Christmas vacation crunching numbers, memorizing historical dates, or learning proper grammar, but they couldn't just flip off their thinking caps either. They had to use those caps for the annual Brain Bash competition. The 135 junior high and high school students were divided into 14 teams, each named for a Disney movie or character. For more than three hours Friday, the teams moved through 13 stations to test their mental and...
Despite the snow dump, a young white-tailed buck finds leftover green plants on a porch just west of Plains....
Dog Hill Bistro closed down for construction purposes Saturday with nearly a dozen builders, all with their own different design ideas. "I love their creativity; they're so adorable," said bistro owner Kathy Logan about the 10 gingerbread houses. The houses were colorful and tasty, but they weren't being built by kids this time. This was the First Annual Adult Gingerbread House Class put on by Logan. "Parents are always doing something for their kids this time of year, so I wanted to do...
Saturday was the first Plains Christmas Extravaganza. It might have been small, but organizers are hoping it will grow in time. "We don't really have anything for Christmas in Plains and this is sort of a test year. Maybe it'll be bigger next year," said Steve Spurr, who helped his wife, Whitney Tanner-Spurr, organize the Plains Christmas Extravaganza. Festivities started at the United Methodist Church, where children had the chance to decorate Christmas ornaments. Six girls and two boys from ag...
As we gather with family and friends this holiday season and count our blessings, let’s remember to give thanks for the extensive forest lands that surround our communities. We are fortunate to be surrounded by large areas of productive forest lands, exceptional recreation opportunities and also some precious remaining wild country. One thing that deserves special celebration today is the way our communities approach public lands issues, which has become so much more positive, inclusive and constructive in recent years. Just a decade or two a...
Few words were spoken after Navy veteran Ron Kilbury led the Plains group in the Pledge of Allegiance. After that, all that could be heard was the crackling of the flames that were consuming the tattered remnants of Old Glory. One by one, members of VFW Post 3596 and Boy Scout Troop 1957 placed flags into the fire while nearly a dozen people from the community looked on Dec. 7 in the rear parking lot of the VFW for its flag retirement ceremony. The post conducts a flag retirement ceremony each...
Forty-one people took part in the 2017 Clark Fork Valley Hospital Hospice Tree of Life ceremony, held this year at the Paradise Center last Wednesday evening. "The event went really well and we do this to honor the families that have lost loved ones," said Debbie Lang, the Home Health and Hospice Manager and one of the event coordinators. The hospital sponsors the annual event not only to help family members cope with the loss of family and friends, but to raise funds for hospice patients that...
Plains Mayor Greg Eitelberg hoped his final town council meeting would go quickly and smoothly – he was wrong. "I thought it was going to be a quick 10-minuter. I only had one item on the agenda," said Eitelberg, who turns the reins over to Dan Rowan in January. That one agenda item, "Gate Blocking Alley on Scott Lane," turned into a heated discussion between the council and three Scott Lane residents. At one point, Eitelberg had to remind them to stop interrupting council members and raise their hands when they wanted to speak. Scott Lane i...
Santa Claus is known for giving presents, but last week he stopped in at Quinn's Hot Springs Resort to show a 7-week-old puppy at a "Plains Family Benefit." "To have all those people come out to help me was just truly amazing," said Clint Weedeman, who spent 11 days at St. Patrick Hospital after falling almost 20 feet from a roof during a job west of Plains in early November. Weedeman sustained several injuries, including broken and cracked ribs, a broken collarbone and scapula, a collapsed...
Plains High School art teacher Kristen Cole sent her students out last week to "paint the town." But they didn't go out for a day of drinking and dancing, they spread out around the community to help deliver Christmas spirit by painting windows. The Plains students spent last Thursday painting Christmas themes in the windows of more than 20 businesses from one end of town to the other, including the Clark Fork Valley Hospital Clinic and Plains City Hall. "Our students are amazing. I feel...
The Sanders County Arts Council is one step closer to its goal of having a fully operational art center at the Paradise Center thanks to the generosity at the "Do Your Bidding Over a Baked Potato Dinner" fundraiser Saturday evening. "I think it went really well," said Noxon resident Cinda Gazaway, the chief coordinator and one of the artists who donated artwork to the fundraiser, which included a live auction of 32 donations from local businesses and individuals, and 54 pieces of art for the...
