Your Best Source For Sanders County News
Your Best Source For Sanders County News
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It doesn’t look good for the E.L. Johnson Memorial Pool in Plains, but Mayor Dan Rowan is determined to keep it going. Despite the latest bad news, he believes he can get another four or five years out of the 43-year-old pool before having to shell out the big-bucks estimate that he got last week from a professional pool builder. Work on the pool was already in process and it looked like it was going to be opening the first week of June as planned, but after Double C Construction of Missoula and the Plains Public Work Department staff took o...
The Plains Days committee put out a schedule of events that they say is fairly firm, although something could change, according to the Facebook post. Plains Days festivities begin on Friday with the Plains High School alumni football game at 5 p.m., followed by an alumni softball game at 6:30 p.m. and a basketball game at 8 p.m. Admission for the basketball competition is $2 or $15 for admission and a t-shirt, said Kevin Meredith, the high school principal and alumni events coordinator. The core of Plains Days activities take place Saturday...
A World War II airplane armed with a group of paratroopers invaded Holland just last week. The C-47 troop transport aircraft made four passes last Tuesday morning just west of Plains on the property of John and Dacy Holland, dropping seven parachutists that were training for a reenactment of the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of the Second World War. It was the first training for the jumpers since the 75-year-old plane was made airworthy only weeks ago. The Holland drop zone was...
by Ed Moreth Anyone who thinks mermaids can't run didn't go to the Mini Mermaid and Young Triton 5K at Plains Elementary School Saturday. Nearly 50 people, including a dozen Mermaids (girls) and five Tritons (boys) took part in the race, which looped around several roads before finishing back at the school. First across the finish line was Jerren Borgman, an eighth-grader, who finished in 27 minutes and 21 seconds, according to Gena Ferlan, president of the Mini Mermaid and Young Triton Club....
I hiked down off the mountain at 3:44 in the morning. It was the day after the summer solstice and there was already a thin line of light blue along the horizon. I moved quickly and carefully down the trail, guided by my headlamp and the downhill movement of gravity. I stopped suddenly, pulled by an invisible force in the darkness. I looked up at the stars, twinkling in their own magic, then realized what caught my attention. Not so far away was a scraggly, uneven peak, waiting patiently for the sun to rise. And on top of that peak stood a...
An estimated 400 people turned out for Saturday's seasonal grand opening of the National Bison Range, which included the 19-mile Red Sleep Mountain Drive and the visitor's center. The visitor number nearly doubled on Mother's Day. "It was a pretty good opening day. We had a steady stream of people here all day," said Vanessa Fields, the acting manager for the National Bison Range, which gets an average of 180,000 visitors a year. The majority came from Sanders, Lake and Missoula Counties, but...
by Ed Moreth Kenton Pies is not being discouraged by critical comments of his steel horse on the Plains greenway and he's almost a third of the way through his second horse. But that doesn't mean he didn't listen and evaluate the criticism, which mostly centered around the thickness of the neck. In defense of his work, he said horses have different proportions and has dozens of photographs to illustrate his point, including some that display a thick neck, like on his prototype steed....
Nearly 100 people showed up at Plains High School Monday evening to check out the school's Art Exhibition 2019, where 52 high school students showed their artistic talents. Three hundred and fifty-three pieces of art ranging from a one-inch long ceramic package of toilet paper by junior Mason Gannarelli to a nearly five-foot tall can of Mountain Dew by Chris Jones, a freshman, who also had a two-foot wide cardboard replica of Wall-E, a Disney movie character. Jones had 10 pieces in the show....
The Plains-Paradise Rural Fire District plans to utilize technology to help them battle blazes, thanks to an FM Global grant of $2,494. Staff members of FM Global, a mutual insurance company, presented Chief James Russell an award certificate representing the funds given to the firehouse last week. Russell will use the fire prevention grant money to buy four computer tablets, which will help them collect information in the district's area of responsibility on such things as road access, water...
Sanders County athletes returned home Friday with nearly 75 medals after a day at the Montana Special Olympics Glacier Area Games in Kalispell. The Little Bitterroot Wildhorses of Plains and the Sanders County Superhawks of Thompson Falls and Trout Creek took part in the Special Olympics track and field competition at Legends Field in Kalispell. The Little Bitterroot Services had 12 men and eight women at the competition while the Superhawks had two men, a boy and a girl there all day. The Littl...
Work began on the E.L. Johnson Memorial Pool in Plains last week with workers from Double C Construction of Missoula ripping up the old pavement so another contractor could then replace some 300 feet of pipes. Double C Construction, owned by Kurt Campbell, was one of three bidders for the job. Plains Mayor Dan Rowan said the entire project, which is divided into three parts, will cost about $30,000. Traver's Excavator Service, Inc., of Thompson Falls, owned by Ben Traver, won the bid for...
The Blue Heron Karate Academy held its first tournament last weekend, which may have been the first ever karate tournament in Plains, said Jason Williams, the club's "sensei," and creator of the Plains-based club. Fourteen kids of the academy competed with each other at the Sanders County Fairgrounds pavilion Saturday in three different contests – Kata, ribbon drill, and chest sparring. Jasmine Trull, 11, finished as the grand champion in the 11-14-year-olds class in the chest sparring c...
Traveling in space seemed to be kid stuff Saturday when a group of Plains students performed "Gulliver's Travels," a musical of explorer Gulliver lost in space with a broken spaceship. The 43 young actors, three student assistant directors, and two staff members of the Missoula Children's Theatre put on two performances of the musical Saturday afternoon at the Plains School gymnasium, where some 170 showed up for the play. The show was sponsored by the Plains Woman's Club, which has brought the...
Yellow perch (Perca flavescens) are a small tasty fish that can easily be caught in large numbers during spring spawning season. One of the best places to catch perch this time of year is Flathead Lake. Yellow perch seek shallow and relatively warm waters and begin spawning when the water temperature rises to between 35- and 65-degrees Fahrenheit. I’ve found that in Flathead Lake the action really takes off when the water temperature hits 45 degrees and the sun starts to regularly peek through the clouds. Each year for the last three years I...
A group of Plains athletes is heading to Kalispell Friday to show their stuff at the Montana Special Olympics Glacier Area Regional Games at Legends Field. Twenty men and women from the Little Bitterroot Services will be participating in the day long track and field, golf and bowling competition. "They are really motivated," said Andy Ibarra, head coach for the Plains Little Bitterroot Wildhorses. The team got a late start on training this year, but jumped right into the swing of things with a...
It might have been the biggest crowd ever for the annual Easter Egg Hunt at the Plains community park on Sunday, put on by the Plains Lions Club and the Plains Assembly of God Church on the Move. Nearly 400 people packed the park, including around 160 children, who participated in the Easter Egg Hunt. Once again, the Easter Bunny – aka Adam Aguilera this year – roamed through the crowd getting hugs and pictures taken with kids and adults alike. "It was a very good turnout and it went smo...
Alan Fink, general manager of the Town Pump in Plains, hands a check to Kathy Gregg, treasurer of the Committee For Safe Swimming (CSS), on Tuesday as a donation to help get the E.L. Johnson Memorial Pool repaired. CSS, a nonprofit organization, raised some $50,000 to repair the aging pool, which developed significant leaks last summer. Also with Fink and Gregg are Kristy Sample, the Town Pump casino manager (left) and Kayla Shupert, the casino district manager out of Kalispell. "I think it's...
Growing up in Libby, Montana, I was surrounded by incredibly wild and beautiful country. Our family spent a lot of time in the outdoors. There were trails headed into the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness area within just a few miles of our house. A few years after this area was designated an official wilderness area in 1964, we backpacked into Granite Lake, a six-mile hike crossing Granite Creek several times before arriving at the lake. Everything seemed larger than life, from the huge ferns...
The Coast Guard isn't targeting elementary kids for future recruits, but one unit in Washington state has taken in a Plains Elementary School class as its new pen pals, thanks to two local men who brought the two groups together. The third grade class of Julie Warner started writing the crew members of Coast Guard Aids to Navigation Team 15 (ANT 15) in Kennewick, Washington, in February, when Plains artist Dave Williams and his brother-in-law Ed Foste transported a painting to the unit in an...
"The link between the worlds of art and surgery are powerful and pervasive," according to the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Clark Fork Valley Hospital figured out a way to combine both by hosting "An Evening of Surgery and the Arts" last Thursday in an effort to highlight the Art on the Walls and host an open house for its two operating rooms and the recovery room. "It's a good partnership," said Lisa Eberhardt, the hospital's chief nursing officer, who had hoped that the people who...
The Plains Piranhas want to make a bigger splash this season, but they need more swimmers to do so. The swim team will be having a sign-up session at 3:30 p.m. Thursday in the Plains School cafeteria. “We’d like to have as many as possible,” said Dan Helterline, president of the swim team. “Our numbers have been dwindling over the last couple years and we need more,” added Helterline. About a dozen kids have already committed, including his 14-year-old daughter, Alexis, who’s been a Piranha for six years. There is no minimum age restriction, bu...
For the second consecutive year, a Plains teenager has taken home a major art award and nabbed local recognition for his artistic skills. Malachi Paulsen received Best of Show in the Montana Junior Duck Stamp Contest, sponsored by the Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge for his color pencil and acrylic pen drawing of a harlequin duck. Entitled "Splash Down," the 19-year-old Paulsen was notified last week of his award. Paulsen said he probably won't find out what he gets until the awards...
The newest Sanders County Fair Commission member showed up a little late for last week's meeting, but once he settled in he got right to business. The board members were discussing the contract for this year's carnival and seemed to be coming to an agreement when Tim Ellis started questioning why the carnival owner was telling the board what she wanted, instead of the other way around. Paradise Amusements, the carnival that worked the fair last year, sent a new contract to the board with...
A 44-year-old Plains man was found dead in his rented house around 3 p.m. Friday. Plains Chief of Police Shawn Emmett called it a “suspicious death” and immediately ordered an autopsy of Mark Legard at the Montana Crime Lab in Missoula. Emmett couldn’t release any additional information surrounding the death of the Plains man because the case is still under investigation. His body was discovered by his father, Pat Legard. Mark Legard had been the owner of Mark’s Barber Shop in Plains for several years. He lost his mother, son and a niece i...
The Plains Days committee got one step closer to firming up some of the events and made a decision on outside vendors at their meeting last week at the Dog Hill Bistro. Outside vendors have shown up at past Plains Days, but the committee decided to give local vendors first shot and a better deal. Erika Lawyer, the Plains Business Association treasurer, said they felt that the town has nonprofit and commercial businesses that can provide the same services as some of those from out town. “A solution to providing adequate service while honoring o...
