Independently owned since 1905
Independently owned since 1905
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The last steel wild horse was installed on the Plains greenway last week and although the artist wishes he could have done more, he is relieved to be finished with the three and a half-year-old project. With the horse "planting" came a dedication ceremony for Kenton Pies' final horse led by the flute playing of Chilaili Wachiwi, a Native American and a resident of Trout Creek, who did a special piece she wrote called "Horses in the Grass." Twenty-one people gathered on the greenway Friday at 11...
A bill seeking to ease permitting requirements for gravel pits in rural areas and make it harder to call a public hearing on new facilities is drawing clear battle lines in the Montana Legislature, as property owners say it cuts them out of the process. In a hearing that lasted for more than two hours on Monday, March 15, the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Steve Gunderson, R-Libby, called the bill -- House Bill 599 -- “Open Cut 2.0,” which he said built off the provisions of “Open Cut 1.0,” a bill passed in the 2019 session. Open-cut mining, also know...
Patty Sundberg remembers a time early in her 40-year career in beekeeping when a 5% annual colony loss felt like a big deal. Now, she said it’s all her company can do to hold that rate at 20% -- though, on bad years, it can swing even higher. In the mid-2000s, word of a frightening trend in bee populations began circulating in the scientific community: entire colonies of bees were dying off at stunning rates. Dubbed “colony collapse disorder,” some beekeepers were reporting hive losses as high as 30% to 90% during the 2006-2007 winter. The n...
Public speaking is known to be an intimidating experience for most adults - it can be even more scary for kids. Nevertheless, 26 boys and girls from the Plains 4-H club South Side Sparks braved the anxiety of giving a talk - and being critiqued - in front of relatives, friends and judges at the Sanders County Fairgrounds pavilion last weekend for the first round of Communication Days competition. Six members from the club will move on to the finals competition scheduled for April 11 at the...
It was over in 6.8 seconds before it took a nose dive into the ground, shattering on impact into several pieces. The "Shark" showed promise for builder Nathan Feliksa, a senior in Carl Benson's physics class at Plains High School, and one of six students to assemble rockets as part of a class project to help them better understand physics. Feliksa spent three class periods working on his 10-inch long rocket and another two and a half hours hand painting a shark face on the nose cone. He also...
Coaches for the Clark Fork Valley Riverdogs are getting their players more fitted into fixed positions, but continued to do some experimentation, including on the pitcher's mound, where they already have a deep bullpen. The American Legion team had its first "live game situation" at the Amundson Sports Complex just west of Plains on Sunday. The team has been conducting indoor practice in the Plains Alliance Church gymnasium since January, but recently had a couple outside practices. Head coach...
None of the Plains High School physics students plan to become rocket scientists, but their teacher hopes building rockets will help get them through the class with higher grades. Carl Benson has been teaching physics for 30 years and saw his students' grades go up after he introduced a hands-on rocket segment. The class is an elective and primarily for seniors, but it's a difficult class, said Benson, who noticed that after he introduced rocket building, more students signed up for the class....
The Plains Elementary School principal was hit in the face with a pie, smothered with silly string, compelled to gobble up cake and pudding as fast as he could, and will be dunked in a tub of water - all done in the cause of reading. The more books the students read, the more points they garnered, and the more points they collected, the better their chances were to do something fun to Principal Jim Holland, during part of the annual Love to Read Program, which is designed to motivate youth to re...
The Sanders County Sewer District at Paradise held another Zoom meeting Friday evening, and though a portion of the four and a half hours were public comments addressing the faults of the board president, according to Sunny Chase, who heads the board, it managed to get some agenda items passed. Chase and board member Rick McCollum are on the verge of being recalled after a petition was recently filed by Paradise resident Cody Lampman. Signatures have been collected and are in the process of being verified. The county had 30 days to complete...
Construction of a new Plains School multi-function facility is more than halfway done and progress is moving along at a steady pace. The new structure, which primarily will house a gymnasium and art classroom, is scheduled to be completed June 30 and ready for students in the fall, said Superintendent Thom Chisholm, who designed the 12,000-square foot structure with Kevin Meredith, the high school principal, and Jim Holland, the elementary principal. Chisholm is pleased with the progress of...
The mayor of Plains announced at the monthly council meeting Monday that the town officially received its grant of $5,148,500 for the new wastewater treatment facility. Though they basically knew grant money was forthcoming, it wasn’t until Monday, only hours prior to the council meeting, that Mayor Dan Rowan and town attorney Richard Gebhardt completed the negotiations for the grant with FEMA and the Montana Department of Emergency Services to secure the funds. “The FEMA grant in particular was very competitive and we were gratified to rec...
The Paradise group opposed to putting in a sewer system there hasn’t given up — they’ve put together a petition to recall two of the board members, but in hopes of eventually stopping the entire project, according to LeeAnn Overman, one of those who’s has been in opposition to the proposed sewer system since the start. Paradise resident Cody Lampman filed the “Notice of Intent To Recall” paperwork last week at the Sanders County Courthouse in an effort to start a petition to remove Sunny Chase, president of the Sanders County Sewer District at...
Two Clark Fork Valley Hospital employees have been recognized for their efforts to reach out to new mothers. Sara Nestor and Cassie Craft received the Health Hero Award from Eat Right Montana and Montana Action for Healthy Kids in a virtual Zoom ceremony February 10. The award was presented to Nestor and Craft by Montana's First Lady, Susan Gianforte, and Rebecca Morley of Eat Right Montana. The two hospital staffers received the award for a weekly educational live video called "Virtual Baby...
by Ed Moreth Clark Fork Valley Hospital has two new full-time medical professionals, although one is no stranger to local patients. Physician Assistant Randy Mack has lived in Plains since 2002, when he first started at the hospital's Plains Family Medicine office, a job he held for 12 years before he left to show his medical proficiency in Hawaii and Washington. However, Mack returned to the Clark Fork Valley Hospital system in January, now working at Hot Springs Family Medicine. New to the...
The Montana House of Representatives has approved two bills seeking to expand the season and methods by which Montanans can trap the state's gray wolf population. Rep. Paul Fielder, R-Thompson Falls, a wildlife biologist of 31 years, sponsored both measures and introduced them to the full House during a floor session Wednesday. House Bill 224 would allow trappers licensed in Montana to also use snares to trap wolves. Fielder said the measure would help keep wolf populations down in the state....
It took nearly two years, but the Quinn's Hot Springs Resort's new pools opened last Tuesday with a short ceremony by two of the resort's top managers. Ben Slusser, the managing director, and Damian Albright, the projects manager, used three-foot long ceremonial scissors to cut a ribbon to officially open the new pools to lodging customers. "It was a long time coming but here we are and now our vision has come to life," said Slusser to the more than 30 Quinn's staff members and quests at the...
For the second month in a row, the Plains Town Council passed a resolution relating to property it needs for its proposed sewage treatment plant and might have to resort to eminent domain to get it. The five town council members voted unanimously last Monday evening to approve Resolution 21-3, which makes a final offer to the Stonebrook Trust for the acquisition of a stretch of property for the planned sewage plant. As in the case of Resolution No. 21-1, which was approved in January to...
The Plains-Paradise Rural Fire District is planning to extend its service to the community with a water rescue program. The fire district recently purchased two used Sea-Doo personal watercraft from a private owner in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, to start the new program. Fire Chief James Russell affixed the Plains-Paradise Rural Fire District rescue decals on the machines Monday. The fire district board voted unanimously in favor of the program in December and in January voted to spend the funds f...
One Paradise resident showed his commitment to the Paradise Center with rocks - big and heavy rocks. Bridger Bischoff, owner of Rock Solid, Inc., used his front loader last Thursday to haul five boulders, from his "stone yard" a few hundred yards away and placed them in various spots along the center's 1,100-foot paved Paradise Center Walking Trail. The walking trail is comprised of 15 interpretive panels that cover the history of Paradise, as well as other facets of northwest Montana. Judy...
It took more than 25 years, but they finally did it. It took going all the way to the top to get it done, and now the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) are in charge of the National Bison Range. "This is a great historic event and we worked hard to reach this point," said Robert McDonald, communications director for the CSKT. "This comes after a century of being separated from the buffalo and the Bison Range, and after a quarter-century-long effort to co-manage the refuge with the...
The first Sanders County Fair Commission meeting was short, but the manager and the three remaining board members are off to a fast start in readying for the 2021 fair. "We're going to go on planning for this year's fair until they tell us to shut it down again," said Randy Woods at last week's meeting, which was over in less than an hour. Manager Melissa Cady is in the process of sending out more contracts than 2020, although she didn't have an exact number. She said they're also working to...
The Town of Plains may be using eminent domain - the compulsory purchase of a property - in an effort to get the sewage treatment plant moved before the Clark Fork River overtakes it and puts it out of commission, which would have detrimental consequences for town residents. Plains faced two hurdles before the sewage facility could be moved - funding for the project and land for a new site. The town received nearly $5.2 million in a Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) grant in...
The sole laundromat in Plains is under new ownership and they plan to be on site to assist customers on a regular basis. Chad and Lynne Kavanaugh purchased the Wash Tub Laundromat at 202 South Willis Street behind City Hall last October, six months after moving to Plains from California. The couple bought the entire building, which also has three second floor apartments and an office space on the first level, from Doug Wipplinger of Plains. Wash Tub Laundromat has 14 washers and 12 dryers, all...
The wet winter this week didn't stop the newest youth baseball team in Sanders County from getting started in its training for the upcoming season. The Clark Fork Valley Riverdogs, the first American Legion team in the county for 20 years, was officially given its charter on Jan. 1 when Jon Zigler of Plains registered the new team with the Montana/Alberta American Legion Baseball Association. The county has several different league teams from T-ball to Babe Ruth, but there hasn't been a Legion...
"We didn't know what to expect when we started, but it's been great," said Suzy VonHeeder, who opened up The Bean Bug, a new Plains cafe at the site of the former Dog Hill Bistro, which closed its doors in October. The Bean Bug opened in a 1,000-square foot space of Mountain West Clothing in McGowan Mall on Dec. 1 and business has been good for VonHeeder and her partner, Emmalie Gavlak, a former Thompson Falls teacher. "We wanted to have bean in the name to go with coffee and I've always liked...
