Independently owned since 1905
Independently owned since 1905
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Public employees are tasked with carrying out public policy. That’s true for school teachers (which I was), for our county commissioners, and also for our county’s public health nurse. But, voiced at the Oct. 11 Board of Health meeting, County Nurse Debbie Lang announced that she made the personal decision not to offer Covid-19 vaccines to anyone through Sanders County’s Public Health Department. Ms. Lang has the personal freedom to form her own opinions about the safety of the Covid vaccine; she should not have the authority to personally deny...
We, Dave and Debbie Lyman, are responding to an article in the Ledger concerning the ‘private’ Sawtooth Mountain EMS (SMEMS) ambulance service now being dispatched in Heron. Many folks who live in Heron do not know the background of this controversy. We wish to explain what we saw take place at numerous public meetings. Proponents of a Quick Response Unit (QRU), under the auspices of the Heron Rural Fire District (HRFD) began pushing their agenda on social media, without speaking directly to the HRFD Board. The HRFD Board was eventually approac...
Experience. When it comes down to it, experience is more valuable than anything we can learn from a textbook. We can read a manual to change our oil, watch a video to can green beans, or sit through a class to be a teacher. But nothing equates to just doing the thing – good old-fashioned, hands-on learning. That’s true for the previous examples, but it’s especially true when it comes to driving, specifically teen driving. Where do most teens get their experience driving? My guess would be mostly from parents. Parents are the go-to source for a...
Dear Editor, I don’t know who needs to hear this – but soccer is big in Sanders County. And the kids that play – they’re really good! I help coach the senior girls soccer team at Clark Fork Soccer – a club soccer program in Plains, Thompson Falls, St. Regis, Superior, and Hot Springs. I’m tremendously lucky to have talented players, a committed team of coaches, good quality facilities, and supportive parents and families. It’s easy to be a great coach when so many are so committed to excellence. We SHOULD be proud of these kids – I know I am...
When I was 45, I went to my family’s second reunion. The first reunion was for my grandparents’ 50th wedding anniversary and I was five years old for that one, so at an average of forty years between reunions you might gather that we were not a particularly close-knit family, and you would be right. But at the second reunion I realized that I was related to some people well worth knowing so I made an effort to keep in touch, particularly with my father’s younger brother, John, and I went to see...
“I have been doing good and going the way my doctor wants it … what you have to be doing is be strong, be and think positive, and take it day by day.” This was written in a thank you card to our church last year by Lacey Kinser. Lacey lost her battle with breast cancer last week, and I thought of this card she had sent and how positive it was, despite what she was going through. If you shopped at Little Bitterroot in Thompson Falls, you probably met Lacey. She always greeted customers with a smile and was a hard worker. She loved the Blue...
As I grow older, it becomes more difficult to accept the uncaring nature of what seems to be a majority of humans when it comes to other species on the planet. From mosquitoes to redwoods, we seem bent on destroying the other biota on Earth. They get in the way. They block the view. They are more valuable as commodities or oddities or collectors’ items than they are as living things. We buy and sell them. We kill them with impunity, as if we are the only creatures in creation that have the right to be alive. We are wrong. Humans seem to have th...
The Clark Fork Soccer Alliance is grateful for the Ledger's coverage of soccer in the county. Annie Wooden's words of support in the Sept. 28 Ledger were especially welcome. I have never fancied myself a soccer person but I have grown to respect the sport almost as much as my first love, basketball. The parallels between the two sports are intriguing. Since moving to Thompson Falls sixteen years ago, I have been involved with the local soccer program as a program coordinator, registrar, parent, fan, and most recently as the assistant coach of...
Children thrive in environments that are consistent and safe. It’s where nurturing and thriving coexist in a world that can be utterly chaotic. Saying was, “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.” However that’s seemingly changed. Instead of maintaining, our society is quick to toss what could be fine and find new. This has proven true recently with a few school districts in Sanders County. Our community had a safe, logical agreement for students attending school out-of-district. That agreement was recently revoked with the unfortunate events of a...
Editor, We read your article (Ledger- October 12) concerning the Sawtooth Mountain EMS service in Heron. We look forward with interest to reading your article presenting the other side of this story. Sincerely, Debbie and Dave Lyman, Heron...
by Michael Scharfe With rates being as high as they are right now, refinancing may not be at the forefront of your mind unless you are looking to the future, with hopes that they drop at some point. This, I feel, begs the question of when would be a good time to refinance? To answer that question, you first need to ask yourself what the purpose of the refinance is. Typically, the two main reasons for refinancing are to get cash out on the property or to change the rate/term of your loan. With a cash out refinance, you would use the equity...
Our job as a newspaper is to inform our readers, to be leaders of information in local communities. I get a lot of random questions from people every day. Most of the time, if it’s something we’ve written about, I’ll end my answer jokingly with “I read it in The Ledger.” It’s true, though. Looking back on more than six years owning a newspaper, there’s a lot of random knowledge in my brain that I never would have learned if I wasn’t reading the newspaper or covering local events and meetings. The 2023 Local Newspaper Study provides eviden...
On a table in the front hallway to my house is a photograph of two men who look like they are enjoying each other's company. It's not obvious in the picture, but they are reclined on a short two-step stairway that leads to the rostrum of the Montana House of Representatives. For such an august place they are perhaps being disrespectful of the decorum that such places should engender. On the left in the picture is a much younger version of myself in my second legislative session. On the right is...
Letter to Editor I recently heard a statement that “there are too many people on the city Council of _____ political persuasion and that balance needs to be changed by electing new people to the council”. That statement reflects a lack of understanding of the council and does a tremendous disservice to those serving on the council. The city council is a nonpartisan body tasked with making the best decisions for a city and its residents based on facts and knowledge of city needs. Politics do not come into play on the council, regardless of wha...
It’s great that both Plains and Thompson Falls School Districts made baseball happen for boys from Noxon to Hot Springs! It’s a great game and the options for high school boys to play otherwise are expensive, require lengthy drives and they have to make the Legion cut. Both school boards approved the addition and then subsequently worked out coop agreements with Hot Springs and Noxon schools respectively to make it happen. The kids win when things come together. It’s my hope both school boards give soccer in this valley the same consi...
Dear Editor, More than one in four Montana high school students currently use e-cigarettes, and the disposable e-cigarettes many of them use are bigger and badder than ever before. According to a recent study in Tobacco Control, the amount of e-liquid a disposable e-cigarette device can hold increased by 518% and the average nicotine strength increased by 294%. As a result, the amount of nicotine in some disposable e-cigarettes is now comparable to several cartons of cigarettes. E-liquids have also dropped in price, making it easier for kids to...
The other day I was walking through Rose Garden Park in Thompson Falls with my trusty sidekick Walter the Jack Russell Terrier when I got a text from a friend that said "What are you looking up at?" The truth is, I'm looking up a lot these days. The colors in Sanders County are beautiful. This is my favorite time of year. When you need a sweater in the morning and an extra blanket in the evening, but the days are sunny, warm enough for just a t-shirt and perfect for looking up. This magic time in northwest Montana is awesome because everyone is...
QUESTION AUTHORITY!!!! This was a bumper sticker from the late 1970’s. I recall seeing it around town, wondering why people would want to question authority. I was young enough that ,to me, authority was mostly Mom and Dad and teachers at school. But I was intrigued enough to ask some older friends in the neighborhood about why they were questioning authority, and who that was. For them it related to the politicians who had entered into the Vietnam war. Many were still reeling from the loss of f...
Among several potential candidates for Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction in the next election is Sharyl Allen, who works as an assistant to Elsie Arntzen, current OPI chief. Allen is in the news because her work history is a bit sketchy; apparently she has left more than one contract uncompleted in more than one state. Allen’s supporters call her such things as innovative and creative, while others from teaching staff to board members just can’t get along with her. My point here is not to evaluate Allen’s candidacy, but rather to poi...
From the beginning of our existence flowers have captivated and healed us in one way or another. They were on this planet before we were. They have energy that radiates out to us. Why? Many theories are there to add understanding of their charm. But whatever any of us believes, the fact is that flowers have power. Just as herbs are used for cooking and healing, flowers are used to soothe the soul, brighten a day, or heal emotional and physical pain. And often they are used for cooking. But the essence of a flower can be extracted and used...
Do y’all realize this is the twelfth Whatcha Readin’ article? Crazy! That means one full year of you sitting down with me once a month to email me a picture of your bookshelf (yes, I really do get those emails and I LOVE them!) or what you just finished that you couldn’t put down. That’s so exciting! I sincerely hope you’ve gotten some good recommendations from this column, and that you keep expanding my to be read (TBR) pile. Still, in September I read 11 books, five of which were four stars or better. Here they are, in no particula...
It was a little over five years ago in June of 2018 when Bethesda Game Studios announced they were making a new game set in an entirely new universe. They called the game “Starfield.” Bethesda didn’t give us a release date yet. In truth they really didn’t give us much at all, just that they were working on a new roleplaying game set in space. I have always been a huge fan of science fiction and Bethesda’s previous games, so when I saw Starfield I knew immediately that I had to have this game. The thing with Bethesda is they have a tendency...
by Tina Daugherty September feels like fall, not only in weather. . . August, September and October are always the most active selling months of the season, but all numbers are down but one. The inventory levels are down slightly in September indicating more of a seller's market, which is typical of seasonality (who likes to move in the winter), but so are the sales which is indicative of a buyer's market. Pending sales were down, which is a leading indicator, but again seasonal and indicative of a buyer's market. Days on market is 87 for...
There was a lot of soccer in my life last week. On Monday I went to Plains to watch the Clark Fork girls play Columbia Falls. The Clark Fork teams consist of young men and women from throughout the region and is considered a club sport because it hasn’t been approved by any Sanders County school boards. Then on Saturday I watched kids from age 3 to 12 play various games in Thompson Falls for a full day of fun. There were teams from throughout the county. Plains, Thompson Falls, Hot Springs and Trout Creek competed, as well as Superior. There w...
Last Sunday, September 17, was the anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution in Philadelphia in 1787. I want to think of those giants of history, the founders of America, brave, wise, not perfect, but good, who compromised, not their principles, but their desires, in order to bring together a nation that has served as a shining example to the world of what can be accomplished for the benefit of humankind. I want to think of them, but what keeps intruding on my thoughts are sev...
