Independently owned since 1905
Independently owned since 1905
Sorted by date Results 651 - 675 of 1023
The owners of the Washtub Laundromat in Plains takes pride in a clean and efficient establishment, but now it's a lot more appealing, thanks to a group of art students from Noxon High School, who painted a colorful mural for customers to see. Owner Chad Kavanaugh said there were bare walls at the laundromat that needed "perking up." "The mural is great, totally exceeds my expectations," said Kavanaugh, who purchased the laundromat with his wife, Lynne, last October. "It really brightens up the...
Being out in an open field is not fun when there's thunder and lightning, unless it's on a baseball field and it's the Thompson Falls Thunder and the Plains Lightning Tigers t-ball tykes. They don't keep score in t-ball, so the competition level was low, but the entertainment level was high. The teams matched up against each other at Amundson Sports Complex at Plains last Monday evening, but the scene was anything but a standard baseball game. "Don't lay down," "pick up your glove," "stop...
“Plains Day 2021 is shaping up to be an amazing event,” said Mary Halling, one of the coordinators on the planning committee that’s setting up activities throughout the day Saturday, June 5. Though the committee hasn’t locked down specific times for many of the events, committee member Connie Foust said they’ll be starting with the Mason Pancake Breakfast at the VFW from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. One of the most popular activities of years past is returning to Plains this year, courtesy of VFW Post 3596. It’s the crosscut competition, which will...
Thousands of animals, big and small, call the Bison Range home, but the biggest land mammal of North America is the refuge's biggest attraction - the bison, also known as the American buffalo - that numbers over 300 at the 18,700-acre refuge. Saturday was the range's season opener when visitors could take a leisurely ride along Red Sleep Drive, a one way 19-mile gravel road that makes a giant loop around the Bison Range, called the National Bison Range before the Confederated Salish & Kootenai...
Plains Day isn’t the only action planned for Saturday, June 5. The Wildhorse Sports Association is once again bringing back the annual Wildhorse ShootOut three-on-three basketball tournament at the Amundson Sports Complex in Plains. This is the fifth year for the daylong tournament and organizers are expecting numerous teams to participate. The Wildhorse Sports Association is teaming up again with Mission Valley 3 on 3 to conduct the tournament, which in the past has attracted teams from Sanders and Lake Counties, as well as those from as f...
Apparently, keeping their eye on the ball wasn't terribly important to the littlest softball players at the Amundson Sports Complex Friday evening, since most of them closed their eyes as the ball approached. Nevertheless, many still managed to get on base. In the bottom of the last inning - the fifth - it looked like the Plains Trotters U8 team might make a come back from behind. With no outs and two on base, Ginger Nestor, the tallest player on the team, smacked a triple, driving in two runs....
The parents of one child celebrated something that parents hope they'd never have to deal with. Matt and Nicole Feliksa held a party at the Butcher's Nook in Plains last Saturday afternoon as a belated April 4 birthday bash for 15-year-old Sam and to celebrate the success of his recent heart operation that now enables him to lead the more normal life of a growing teen. "I'm going to do as many sports as I can, maybe even martial arts," said Sam during his party, where nearly 50 friends and...
The Sanders County Fair Commission welcomed its two newest members last week and took time during the two-hour meeting at the pavilion to fill them in on recent activities and upcoming events. Brian Crain of Plains and Ted Forkum of Heron were selected by the county commissioners to fill vacancies by Roberta Smith of Thompson Falls and Milanna Shear of Hot Springs. "The reason I wanted to be a board member on the fair commission is that I grew up going to the Sanders County Fair, and know how...
The Town of Plains has taken its first steps toward a beautification project of enhancing the E.L. Johnson Memorial Park, starting with the planting of five large trees. Rick Jennison hauled the trees from his tree farm in Ronan recently, finishing up last Sunday. Jim Henry of Plains, who went to high school with Jennison, helped with the project. The trees ranged from 18-25 feet in height and included two red maples, two Norway maples, and a sycamore. The trees are all about 20 years old and...
The coach of the Clark Fork Alliance Soccer U15 team wants to win, but that’s not his top priority. For Dave Wrobleski, what is important is how the kids play, that they practice good sportsmanship, and that they learn the game. “We’re not headed for the world cup, but learning team skills, communication, handling adversity, and working hard will help them all their life,” said Wrobleski, whose coed team lost to Kalispell’s Flathead Valley United 5-0 Saturday and was defeated by Flathead...
Members of the Paradise Center sometimes have to look at the big picture to get things done, but sometimes that big picture is a very big mural. The panoramic photograph of the mountain setting behind the Paradise Center was attached to a custom made frame on the wall in the center where a railroad display fills half the room. The mural, a photo taken by Plains resident Cheri Seli, was made up of three to five of Seli’s digital images that she shot two years ago. The mural, which was 34 feet, 3...
Despite numerous rumors concerning the demise of Plains Day, a local nonprofit group has decided to make it happen. "The Free Americans," a newly created Sanders County organization, met in Thompson Falls last week to discuss agenda items, which included Plains Day, although only a portion of the group is working on the festival, which had been canceled last year due to COVID, like other festivals. The Hot Springs Homesteaders Days are also going to take place, with three days of activities...
Saturday was the last time the Plains School Drama Club will ever perform at the fairgrounds pavilion, but the final time there was murder. "You Must Meet My Wife" was a comedy mystery that included murder, deception, greed, and several twists to keep the audience guessing, said Terri Henry, who heads the drama club and usually only directs the plays. But real life sometimes has its own twists, too, and the drama club is no exception. One of the main actors, senior Ruby Martinez, was put on...
The first official game for the Clark Fork Soccer Alliance U20 team came as a repeat of the first preseason game – a 1-1 tie with the Stevensville Sabres, which was the team they played the previous week with the same score. The second Saturday game, however, ended in a Clark Fork Soccer Alliance 4-1 victory over Flathead White. Coach Joshua Allday said his team scored all its goals in the second half by Nathan Schraeder, Nick Elliot, Jack Buhrfeind, and Jeffrey Mennen. "The team is making i...
A Plains man unsatisfied with the work of local law enforcement has managed to get the case of the death of his son bumped up to the Montana Department of Justice. That was some seven months ago, but now he's concerned that it's once again being put on the back burner. "I just want justice for Mark. He's not trash to be tossed by the railroad tracks," said Plains resident Pat Legard, who found the body of his son, Mark, with a gunshot wound to his head more than two years ago. However, even...
It's been over a year, but the walls of "Main Street" at Clark Fork Valley Hospital are no longer bare and art lines them once again. The Art on the Walls program was suspended last year after the student show because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but with the drop in cases, hospital officials decided to allow the Sanders County Arts Council to hang art in the hospital, according to Lisa Eberhardt, the chief nursing officer. "Based on the fact that the incidence in our county has dropped and more...
The Plains Community Clothing Bank is reaching out to help students look good for the school prom. The clothing bank exists to give away clothes, but this time of year it provides prom dresses for the girls and suits for the boys. The prom apparel is the only loan items at the clothing bank, said Jessica Peterson, who heads the "Prom Dress Rentals Program," located at the Assembly of God Church on Clayton Street in Plains. There is no charge for the suits or dresses, but Peterson said they'd...
Clark Fork Valley Hospital is featuring a new podiatrist and he's no stranger to Sanders County. Dr. Brian Schenavar began as a consulting specialist at Plains Family Medicine on April 6 and will be seeing patients one to two times a month. Schenavar grew up in Thompson Falls and is a 2008 graduate of Thompson Falls High School and he has had a position as a podiatric physician at Western Montana Foot and Ankle in Missoula since July 2020. The 31-year-old Schenavar is a 2017 graduate of the...
A group of pinwheels fluttering in the breeze might not halt domestic violence, but members of the Sanders County Coalition for Families (SCCFF) hope they will attract attention to make people aware that there is a problem. Kayla Lehman-Torres, the supervised visitation program manager at SCCFF in Thompson Falls, and several volunteers created a field of colorful pinwheels at the Sanders County Courthouse a week ago and on the greenway along Railroad Street in Plains on Saturday. "One of the...
A 5-foot, 8-inch rabbit was seen walking about the E.L. Johnson Memorial Park, and although several were reluctant to approach him, it received a few hugs or high fives. The big bunny, aka Plains resident Logan Wall, 14, was part of the annual Plains Easter Egg Hunt put on by the Assembly of God Church on the Move and the Plains Lions Club Sunday afternoon. An estimated 130 children from nearly 1-10 years old took part in the egg retrieval event. "We love our community and we wanted to make...
It's a new soccer season and although the newest team didn't win either of its first two games, they didn't lose either. The Clark Fork Alliance U20 soccer team in Plains played its first two preseason games on Saturday at Amundson Sports Complex. Both games ended in ties, said Joshua Allday, the team's head coach, who is nevertheless optimistic for future games. The Plains team is part of the Wildhorse Youth Soccer Association, which is part of the Clark Fork Soccer Alliance, a combination of...
One hundred and sixteen livestock animals and one big bird sold at ranch liquidation auction at the Sanders County Fairgrounds Saturday afternoon. "They were just like my kids; I was sorry to see them go," said James Kuntz of Plains, who sold the animals for his health reasons. The 83-year-old Kuntz didn't really want to sell the animals, but he wished they would have brought in more money. Auctioneer Kevin Hill fetched $33,000 in his two-hour sale, which included cattle, horses, donkeys, sheep...
Plains firefighters were able to stop a smoking blower fan motor from expanding to a fire at Rocky Mountain Bank in Plains last Sunday. Fifteen firefighters from the Plains Volunteer Fire Department and the Plains-Paradise Rural Fire District responded to the smoke detector alarm shortly after 9 a.m. “Upon entering we found that the basement was full of smoke and what appeared to be an electrical smell,” said Anthony Young, chief of the Plains Volunteer Fire Department and the incident commander. Captain Larry Neilson was the ranking per...
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...
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...
