Your Best Source For Sanders County News
Your Best Source For Sanders County News
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Nearly 80 people showed up at the open house of the Paradise Center, formerly Paradise Elementary School, Saturday to see the finished Visitor's Center. The guest log displayed signatures from as far away as North Carolina, Texas, Arizona, and Washington. The Visitor's Center is one of three facets of the Paradise Center, along with the Arts Center and Community Center. It's been just over two years since the Paradise Elementary School Preservation Committee started on its vision to transform...
When Miles City’s Rhonda Shumway found she was easily fatigued and couldn’t keep up with her grandchildren, her primary care provider encouraged her to try the Holy Rosary Healthcare Diabetes Prevention Program called Healthy Lifestyles as a solution to her high blood pressure and joint pain. She was amazed that the common-sense approach, educational information, and activities really worked. “My favorite tool was the little blue book we used to record daily food and activity,” she said. “It worked and the pounds started sliding off.” She...
Kenton Pies is still horsing around with an art project he hopes to have on display along the main street of Plains. The 85-year-old Plains resident has now decided to coat his 10-foot long, eight-foot high steel horse with a surfacing concrete to make it less abrasive than the metal covering. "It's a safety issue for kids. It's less abrasive and not sharp," said Pies, who plans to have a herd of five horses somewhere along the greenway, if he can raise enough money to build all of them. His...
Work to get the roads of Plains fixed began last week with Farmer Street, considered the worst of the 12.5 miles of town streets. The crew of Traver's Excavators Service, Inc., of Thompson Falls began work on Monday installing a storm drain near the intersection of Farmer and McGowan Streets. Ben Travers, the company owner, and his crew, Josh Meuchel and James Warner, dug a five-foot deep ditch that went for about 30 feet to install two concrete catch basins, which will have grated manhole...
Mike Hensler, a longtime fisheries biologist for Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP), is the new regional fisheries manager in northwest Montana. Hensler began serving as the FWP Region 1 fisheries manager, based in Kalispell, on July 1. “Mike has been one of FWP’s emerging leaders for a long time when it comes to both native fish conservation and recreational angling, and we are fortunate to have him step into this important leadership role,” FWP Region 1 Supervisor Jim Williams said. Hensler is replacing Mark Deleray, another longtime FWP e...
IN YOUR FACE BRITAIN – Anthony Livernois of Plains furls an American flag at a local event while wearing a shirt that pokes fun at Great Britain, the nation that United States won its independence from. Livernois said he received a few comments when they first saw the shirt with the British colors, which was accompanied with the words "Happy Treason Day Ungrateful Colonists." Livernois, son of Ron and Kim Robinson of Plains, has been in the U.S. Army for 20 years and stationed in Wichita, K...
The Plains Community Decay Ordinance had only been law one day when someone picked up a complaint form, said Plains Mayor Dan Rowan. The complaint hasn’t been returned to City Hall yet, but enforcement of the new ordinance is likely to soon begin. Rowan said the enforcement will depend whether it’s a fire hazard or police matter and likely it will be the department chiefs who will respond. The town’s council unanimously voted to eliminate Section 7.12, entitled “Junked Vehicles” from the new ordinance, but that doesn’t mean people will be abl...
Plains Piranha Jack Couch captured first place in each of the three events at the Plains swim meet at E.L. Johnson Memorial Pool Sunday and when he wasn't zipping through the water, Coach Couch was giving his team members last minute guidance before each event. "I was happy with every one of them. They've improved a lot over the last couple weeks," said Couch, the Piranha's new coach and the team's top competitor. He took first place in the 50-meter butterfly, finishing at 29:08 seconds. His...
"The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival," John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail, after the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. But it was two days later that Congress accepted the final wording of the Declaration, prompting the nation's Founding Fathers to select July 4 as the momentous day. The...
One group in Plains are proud to be losers. They even received an award for their feat. Becky Powley and Janie McFadgen of TOPS – Take Off Pounds Sensibly – were awarded Division Awards at State Recognition Days at Great Falls June 15-17. Powley nabbed first place in Division IV and McFadgen won top honors in Division VII. The two received the recognition for losing the most weight in their divisions for 2017. Powley and McFadgen are members of MT TOPS 202, the Plains chapter, which meets every...
It was the third year for the Local Yokel's Car & Truck Show at Ripples Ice Cream Parlor in Plains, but the first time the sponsors had a People's Choice Award for the top vehicle, which went to Plains resident Wally Logan and his 1941 Chevy pickup. Logan did all the work himself, except for the paint job, including the pickup bed, which is featured with red oak, locust and mahogany wood. Winning the People's Choice means Logan's vehicle will be on the cover of the 2019 show poster. Twenty...
A group of kids demonstrated their cowpoke skills at the Sanders County Fairgrounds last weekend roping and riding as part of the Southwest Youth Rodeo Association competition. Sixty-eight boys and girls participated in age classes from under 7 to 18 years old during the two-day event. The Plains competition was part of a youth rodeo circuit that started in Ramsey two weeks ago and will finish up with state competition in Butte on August 27. Last weekend's event drew youth from 20 Montana...
The one-room schoolhouse on Railroad Street is a community relic and perhaps the oldest building in Plains, and over the last two months it received a facelift that will extend its life 60-70 years, according to Kirby Matthew, a restoration specialist. It took nearly two months and 250 hours of labor from 15 volunteers to refurbish the old logs on the 18-foot wide by 30-foot long Horse Plains schoolhouse, located on the corner of Railroad and Clayton streets in Plains. The school was built in...
One of the first signs that fire season is right around the corner came last week when the Forest Service got Patrick's Knob Lookout ready for business. With winds gusting to more than 20 mph and large patches of snow still scattered around the lookout tower, members of the Forest Service and the Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) opened the station in preparation for lookout Chris Herrick to stand his summer watch over the forest. Herrick, who also was on hand to get the tower ready, will begin his...
The Sanders County Fair Commission held its monthly meeting for the first time in nearly a year in the pavilion, which caught fire during the 2017 fair. Day Springs Restoration started working on the pavilion kitchen late last year and completed their work last week, although Chris McGuigan, the fair manager, said three of the five sinks leaked. The manager and board were not pleased that the contractor took this long to complete the work, a job that cost about $60,000 and cost the fair some $5,000 in lost revenue. A wedding last weekend was...
Nine artists are showing their work at Clark Fork Valley Hospital for the third quarter Art on the Walls exhibit, which opened last week. "I'm always impressed by the art and feel lucky to know some of these artists personally," said Tonya Revier, the hospital's marketing coordinator, at the artists' reception last Thursday. The reception included musical entertainment by pianist Rachel Huenink and refreshments prepared by the hospital's culinary department. The artwork along Main Street...
Four members of the Wild Horse Plains Back Country Horsemen gathered at the Sanders County Fairgrounds last week to provide a day of education to the U.S. Forest Service's Youth Conservation Corps. The horseman club spent Friday with the YCC's three girls and four boys for the annual YCC Stock Packing Class, teaching them the proper way to load up a pack mule or horse, which would transport supplies to sites in the field. "Part of the mission of back country horse is to involve youth and to...
The Plains Piranhas Swim Team had only one day of practice before they took off to compete in Hamilton last weekend. Most of them qualified Saturday for the final competition Sunday, but none placed in the top three spots. Nevertheless, their new coach, Jack Couch, said they did the best they could with very limited training. The team could not get into the E.L. Johnson Memorial Pool in Plains for practice until Thursday because of a faulty heater, said team board member Mariah Corbin. "A lot...
It was standing room only at the Plains Town Council meeting at City Hall last week, when council members went through the second reading of the proposed Community Decay Ordinance, which is what the town is now calling it. Rarely is the courtroom filled during monthly council meetings, but it was packed with nearly 50 people that stretched into the hall. The public works committee and the council has been working on the proposed ordinance for months, but few people have taken an interest. At the...
Six members of the Wild Horse Plains Back Country Horsemen volunteered their Saturday to clean the trail leading to Big Hole Peak Lookout, which is scheduled to be on the list of Forest Service rentals next year. The four men and two women, along with four mules and two horses, packed materials about a mile up Trail #368 to the site where two club members the previous week worked on the trail. The work was part of a $600 Challenge Cost Share Agreement that the horsemen club received from the...
The Plains Town Council meeting last week went for nearly three hours, mostly because of the public comment period for a proposed ordinance, which took up more than half of the time. Still, the council was able to vote on six measures on the agenda, including most of the new proposed Community Decay Ordinance. The Junked Vehicles section was tabled until next month’s meeting. Gary Revier, on behalf of the Plains Golf Association, asked for the council’s approval to establish a seven-spot RV park at the golf course. Revier told the council the...
The Plains Town Council unanimously voted in a new town judge at last week's monthly meeting. Tom Collins was sworn in by Mayor Dan Rowan two days later to replace the vacancy left by Joe Eisenbrandt, who retired after 11 years for medical reasons. "I'm very pleased and honored to be doing this," said the 65-year-old Collins, who considered a judge position three years ago in Thompson Falls, but didn't pursue it. He decided to toss his hat into the ring for the Plains job when it recently...
Commissioner Carol Brooker might not be washed up in politics, but she got herself a public bath on Saturday at a dunk tank sponsored by the Plains Lions Club and Plains-Paradise Rural District. Brooker was one of 10 volunteers to sit in the cold seat as part of Plains Days 2018. Tyrel Allen, the first participant, said before the first ball was thrown that he believed he would stay dry. Six softballs were tossed before a youngster hit the target, but didn't trigger the mechanism to drop Allen i...
The three-day holiday weekend has once again come and gone, but members of the VFW Post 3596 in Plains would rather show their respect to lost comrades on the original Memorial Day – May 30. More than 30 community members joined the VFW and VFW Auxiliary members Wednesday evening at Plains Cemetery for a brief ceremony at the gravesite of Walter R. Martin, a U.S. Navy World War II veteran. Although Martin didn't perish during the war, there are a handful of vets who did at the cemetery, a...
Plains will be a hub of activity this weekend with nearly 30 activities planned for this year’s Plains Days, which will begin Friday evening, when the youth take on adults in the first Alumni Flag Football Contest, which starts at 6 p.m. on the school football field. The evening continues with the traditional Alumni Basketball Game in the school gymnasium at 8 p.m. Kevin Meredith, the high school principal and coordinator of this year’s alumni games, said they plan to have only one coed game for each sport. The alumni competition continues on...
