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Independently owned since 1905
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You've heard of it raining cats and dogs, but ping-pong balls are something new. That's what happened at the Plains airport last weekend when Dan Normandeau and Jimmy Miller tossed 200 colored ping-pong balls from an airplane some 100 feet in the air. It was one of several contests at the 3rd Annual Wings and Wheels Fly-In at Penn Stohr Field in Plains Saturday morning. Normandeau flew the plane, a home built Pietenpol open cockpit airplane, while Miller let the bag of balls fly. The balls...
As the long days of summer get into full swing, Montanans and visitors alike have begun to reconnect with our state parks, our one-of-a-kind outdoor recreation experiences, and the cultural treasures that define our state. Last week, I visited a crew of middle school students who spent one of the first weeks of their summer break instilling a lifelong dedication to our outdoors. As part of Montana Conservation Corps’ youth program, these students were introduced to conservation early, in a hands-on, dirt-in-the-fingernails way, by digging t...
The Plains Woman's Club is participating in a nationwide program to help put shoes on the less fortunate. The General Federation of Women's Clubs adopted the project last year, according to Plains Woman's Club member Debbie Heckman. The national nonprofit organization is called Soles4Souls and is based in Tennessee. According to the Soles4Souls website, the group has distributed over 30 million pairs of shoes around the world since its creation 13 years ago. "If they go overseas, they go to...
The red, white and blue stars and stripes were quickly engulfed in flames to the point it was unrecognizable as the symbol of America. A group of men placed Old Glory in a barrel of fire - not as a demonstration, but out of respect. It was Friday – Flag Day – and American Legion Post 52 was holding its annual flag retirement ceremony at the Clark Fork Valley Elks Lodge 2757 to properly dispose of 240 unserviceable U.S. flags. There is no law that requires that an American flag be disposed of...
People are invited to the annual Wings and Wheels Fly-In at the Plains airport from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday, where there will be an assortment of aircraft, a car show, contests, prizes and food. The fly-in is free and sponsored by the Sanders County Pilots Association, but for $5 people can have a breakfast of pancakes, ham, coffee and juice, said Nita Deardorff, one of the event’s coordinators. The fly-in alternates between the airports of Plains and Thompson Falls. Not too long ago a car show, coordinated by Todd Logan, was added to the f...
The Butcher's Nook in Plains held the grand opening of its new building Saturday and served an estimated 400 people throughout the day, said Jonathan Borntreger, who co-owns the restaurant with his brother, Dan. The Borntreger brothers opened for business at the new site on the west side of Plains on Saturday at 6:30 a.m. and had a steady stream of people all day. "We were absolutely swamped. We had a very good day. We were very blessed," said Jonathan, who added that they had around the same am...
The Plains Town Council had a busy time last Monday, passing two resolutions and the first reading of a new ordinance, and discussed numerous items presented to them from the mayor’s report, including bad news on the E.L. Johnson Memorial Pool. Mayor Dan Rowan reported there’s a good chance the swimming pool will not open this season. Repairs got backed up to the end of July and with a lack of staff hiring at that point, Rowan said he was leaning toward keep the pool closed until next year. However, the Plains Lions Club opened the wading pool...
The competitions of Plains Days weren't restricted to the high school or sports complex. There were individual contests in downtown Plains and one got quite messy - the annual watermelon eating contest, sponsored by the Plains Lions Club and the Plains-Paradise Rural Fire District. Much of the watermelon remnants were strewn across the folding table and on the ground, but a good portion did make it into the mouths of the 14 participants of the youth divisions, where Emmy Russell, 7, nabbed top h...
The Memorial Day picnics and parties were over, but the men and women of VFW Post 3596 wanted to make sure the real reason for the annual commemoration wasn't overlooked, which is why they continue to conduct a ceremony on May 30, the original Memorial Day. "The Monday holiday is an observance day so everybody can have a three-day weekend. We want people to know the real reason of Memorial Day and that's to pay respect to veterans who lost their lives," said retired Air Force veteran Jimmie...
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...
