Independently owned since 1905
Independently owned since 1905
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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...
Students from Hot Springs and Plains schools took a break from spelling and arithmetic to get a ride in the snow, compliments of Patrick Roy and his girlfriend, Kiyha Brost, both of Plains, who brought six Alaskan husky sled dogs to the schools. Roy and Brost spent about two hours last Thursday at Hot Springs Elementary School, where his dogs pulled a dozen second-graders from the class of Felicia Wickum, Roy's mother, on a path at the school. Two weeks ago, he took the dogs and one of his...
People had the opportunity last week to get a good meal, help a nonprofit organization and learn how a group of volunteers are helping the children of Sanders County. Between 70-80 people attended the Sixth Annual Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) Chili Feed at St. James Catholic Church, raising $1,550 at the Thursday fundraiser. "It was way more than we expected and we raised a lot of money for a good cause," said Colleen McCarthy, the newest board member of the CASA, which covers both S...
When Greg Dicken of the Plains Public Works Department takes his package to the post office, he nearly always gets a sour look from the postal employees, but that could be because he's mailing out town sewage samples to a lab in Kalispell, as he's mandated by the state. Dicken doesn't care about the postal reception; he gets a laugh from their reaction. Yet making the postal ladies squeamish is nothing like the thrill he got last week when he was named the Montana 2019 Wastewater Operator of...
The September day started out early, before the sun rose, as most expeditions like this do. I laced up my boots, filled my water bottles, and headed out the door with my friend and his dog, a needed companion. After traveling an hour and a half up Bull River Road, we finally arrived at the trailhead, with a sign that read "Leigh Lake Trail." We admired the glorious rock table next to the trailhead, then headed up the steep incline to begin the most marvelous hike of all. We started up at a...
Plains School was invaded by prehistoric animals Friday, but they weren't the normal dinosaurs. They had names like T-Rex Thompson, Coal Colyer and Big Red. They turned out to be school staff – Casey Thompson, Tyrel Allen, and Kevin Meredith – dressed in dinosaur costumes and they were managed by Paleontologist Pete Thom Chisholm, the school superintendent. The dinosaur raid was part of the school's I Love To Read Program theme "Dino-Mite Book Fair, Stomp, Chomp, and Read!" which is held dur...
Two feet of snow on the ground and temperatures in the teens seems to be a good time to start planning for warm weather events. Members of the Plains Business Association gathered at Dog Hill Bistro last Thursday to begin planning efforts for the annual festival of Plains Days. Matt Jaramillo, owner of Big Sky Network in Plains volunteered to be the director of the festival this year. Jaramillo moved from Texas to Plains six years ago and has put on four large events in the Lone Star State,...
The resignation of the fair manager and the administrative assistant last week added another burden on the Sanders County Fair Commission, which is now down to three members – two of which are new. Last Wednesday's monthly board meeting was nearly over when fair manager Chris McGuigan sprung the news that he was resigning, effective immediately. "I will no longer be with the fair when we finish the meeting tonight," said McGuigan, who has been the manager for the last two years and a member of t...
They say that a way to a man's heart is through his stomach – the Committee for Safe Swimming (CSS) hopes that the way to donations is the same route. Janice Hanson, president of the CSS, is heading a "Fill the Pool Easter Truffles" campaign to raise money to repair the E.L. Johnson Memorial Pool in Plains. The pool is in need of major repairs and the town doesn't have the budget to get it fixed, said Mayor Dan Rowan, who added that it was leaking around 15,000 gallons of water each day last sum...
If you like memorizing for fun, then Myra Lindborg has got something special for you. The Plains resident has 26 pages of lines of a one-act play and needs two more actors. “There’s a lot of lines, but it’ll be fun,” said Lindborg, who is directing Ledge, Ledger, and the Legend, a black comedy written by Paul Elliott. It’s one of three one-act plays being put on by the Paradise Players at the Paradise Center April 5, 6 and 7. Tickets are $13 in advance and $15 at the door. The first of the three plays begins at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, 7:30 p.m....
PUT UP YOUR DUKES – Two deer battle it out in the snow west of Plains. The deer smacked each other a couple of times, then moved on....
This is the time of year to bring out the hats, coats, and gloves, but for one Plains resident, the frigid weather is also a time to help others. A local woman, who wished to remain anonymous, tied nearly two dozen scarves around seven lampposts along Railroad Street in Plains sometime last week. With each scarf was a note that read: "I'm not lost. Please take me with you if you are cold. God Bless." The woman had purchased a batch of the scarves at the Little Bitterroot Thrift Store on West Lyn...
Margaret Mead’s very famous quote promotes active, informed citizenry: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, organized citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Keeping this in mind was at the heart of the presentation, Citizenship 101: Montana’s 2019 Legislature that was held last Friday at the Paradise Center. Twenty citizens from around Sanders County came to fine-tune their knowledge of how Montana’s Legislature works. This presentation is one of many around the state to promote act...
Eugenio Montale once wrote, “The most dangerous aspect of present-day life is the dissolution of the feeling of individual responsibility. Mass solitude has done away with any difference between the internal and the external, between the intellectual and the physical.” Last April, almost exactly on this day one year ago, I spent a continuous 84 hours alone in the wild with no human contact, no words spoken or sight of man. The wilderness was nothing new to me at that time, as my three-and-a-half-day solo came to be at the end of my trip int...
The mayor of Plains swore in the newest member of the town council last week, but it was almost a form of déjà vu. Seven years ago, the roles were reversed. Then Mayor Michael Brinson was swearing in councilman Dan Rowan, who is now the town mayor. Brinson served as the Plains mayor from 2006 to 2013. He sold Brinson's Building Supply in 2014 and in retirement has more time on his hands. He decided he wanted to be in the decision making process that "will keep the town headed in a good d...
Students of Plains High School held a contest in the gymnasium last week to showcase the new after-school program and to recruit additional membership. The school received a $1,000 grant in January, compliments of Channellock Tools of Meadville, Pa., to have an assembly and put on a Career and Technical Education open house to celebrate SkillsUSA Week, said shop teacher Kyle Mitchell, chief coordinator of the new program. He said Plains was the only Montana school to receive the grant. There...
The community of Paradise doesn’t have a bona fide town government or its own law enforcement, but a group of residents decided something needed to be done to clean up their home and to do so invited an assortment of county officials – commissioners, county attorney, law enforcement, county sanitarian, and the fire district chief – to help them achieve that goal. The residents created a group called the Paradise Action Committee last year and made a pact in an effort to help clean up some of the trashy places around the community, espec...
The Sanders County commissioners are looking for people to fill vacancies in the Sanders County Fair Commission, a board of volunteers that work on the fair and fairground operations. In December, three members of the fair board resigned for various reasons and another quit in September; the county needs to replace them as soon as possible, said Commissioner Carol Brooker. Wade Rehbein and Heidi Kirkwood, both of Plains, and Jenny Garrison of Thompson Falls, all resigned in December within days of each other. Rachel Berge of Hot Springs...
One hundred and seventy-five youth from kindergartners to seniors participated in this year's Sanders County Arts Council Art on the Walls Student Show in the Main Street Hallway at the Clark Fork Valley Hospital. The Arts Council and hospital, which co-sponsors the show, hosted a reception in the hospital lobby Thursday to kick off the student exhibit, which will be up until March 27. "It never ceases to amaze me how much talent we have in our communities from kindergarten to high school,"...
The Committee For Safe Swimming (CSS) is once again stepping up to help the Town of Plains repair the E.L. Johnson Memorial Pool. Janice Hanson, president of the nonprofit organization, said they placed a symbolic thermometer at McGowan’s Grocery Store to show the fundraiser progress to the community. The thermometer was placed at the store last Monday and they’ve already received a $250 donation, in addition to the $20,000 the group had in its kitty. Hanson said the group picked McGowan’s to show the thermometer because of the heavy traff...
The Sanders County Arts Council's Visual Arts Committee met at the Paradise Center Saturday to go over this season's special events and new classes, beginning with a new adult pottery class beginning Feb. 5. The Arts Council has had pottery classes in the past, but this is the first time the nonprofit organization will offer an extended lesson, said Karen Thorson, president of the Arts Council. Thorson and Ellen Childress, both Plains residents, will be giving the four-week long class, which wil...
