Independently owned since 1905
Independently owned since 1905
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It’s hard to figure out a reputable media source to gather accurate information with countless avenues to obtain news in our country. It is vital to distinguish between opinion and fact to avoid having different bases of information. Facts can’t be argued against as they are provable. Unfortunately, people often disagree on what is factual and what isn’t. Opinion is someone’s perspective and can be argued against. It is vital to know the difference to avoid pointless arguments. Criteria for a reliable news source would require no fabrication, d...
I was at the Sanders County Fair every day this year for various reasons. On Thursday my mom and I judged entries in the 4-H Home Ec building, Friday I volunteered for the Fair Foundation in the beer booth, and Saturday and Sunday I was there covering various events for the newspaper. I felt like I was at the fair a lot this year, though definitely not as much as the 4-H families and vendors. The Sanders County Fair is pretty special in that admission is still free and the grounds are still covered in grass. The $10 daily parking fee is more...
Life is full right now. Time seems compressed, but on Saturday, I will take a day to travel to the Colville Reservation to visit a dried-up cemetery. I have written about this place and those buried here often, including this piece — slightly modified — for The River Journal, telling of my 40th visit to the grave of Joseph of the Nez Perce. I would apologize for repeating myself, but the message here bears repeating. Nespelem, Washington, October 25, 2014: There are few new buildings in Nespelem. Or newish, at least. Of note within the vil...
With the effect that the higher interest rates and housing prices have had on the affordability of housing, the prospect of owning a home might seem a bit out of reach. The Montana Board of Housing, or MBOH, has various benefits designed to help with bridging that gap of owning a home. Some of the benefits of using MBOH is that they have lower interest rates than that of conventional financing. Their regular loan program is currently at 5.75% versus the conventional mortgage rates of 7.625%. They have various programs that offer down payment an...
At the beginning of the summer, I wouldn't have really dubbed myself a Taylor Swift fan. But watching what she has done with her Eras tour has been pretty incredible. The singer could gross nearly $2.2 billion from this tour. I chatted with some locals who went to her concerts, and the consensus is that what she has done is incredible. Getting up on stage to perform for three hours a night, with multiple shows in each city, is pretty incredible. What's even more interesting is how she has turned her singing career into a very profitable...
In the 1970s you didn’t see many new pickups in Trout Creek, and when you did you knew who it belonged to. Now you don’t see many old pickups and when you do you also know whose they are. So times have changed, the parking lots in front of two of the bars and all of the stores are paved, and the single telephone booth that sat in the middle of a puddle in the middle of the mud parking area in front of the café is long gone and so is the café, as well as the puddle. You can’t stop change,...
I was a 4-H kid for many years. I was a proud member of the Whitepine Happy Workers. I did photography and sewing and cooking projects, but no animals, even though we raised cattle and had horses at home. When I was a sophomore in high school, something had to give. Between school and work and sports and 4-H, I had to let something go, and I decided to let 4-H go. Several times over the weekend at the Sanders County Fair, I told myself that I should have stayed in 4-H thorugh high school. I couldn't really let school go and I worked at the...
One thing I share with my husband is a strong work ethic. We jokingly tell people that work is our hobby. We enjoy the results of our efforts, and I’m not just referring to the financial aspects. There are also benefits of community involvement, having a purpose for each day and being able to share resources with friends and family as we give back. We have been blessed with being able to see opportunities and follow up on them. But we also have experienced times when opportunities were not p...
Fall is in the air and so are soccer balls. I don’t know about your house, but ours is currently overrun with shin guards, socks and jerseys. The temperatures have finally cooled enough to make life outdoors tolerable again and if I’m not on a writing deadline inside, I want to be outside bucking wood with my husband or practicing soccer with my kiddos. In August I read 15 books, of which 11 were four stars or better. Here they are, in no particular order: Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro is medium-paced literary fiction that’s emotional and refle...
In my continuing effort to provide information about the workings of the City, I would like to give a summary of how the current zoning ordinance came to be. Montana state law, specifically Montana Code Annotated 7-1-4123 and 7-1-4124 authorize municipalities to adopt, amend and repeal ordinances and resolutions that are necessary for municipal functions. In response to citizen concerns of business moving into residential neighborhoods, the City Council referred the zoning issue to the planning committee. After the committee met and looked...
The rush is on. School starts soon. High school sports teams are practicing. The great zucchini trade is on as people start harvesting their gardens. As the days get a little shorter, it seems everyone is in a rush to squeeze in last-minute vacations, days on the water and other summer activities. As we soak in the last few weeks of sunshine and making summer memories, it’s a good time for a gentle reminder to watch out for others. Driving to and from the Huckleberry Festival last weekend, several motorists had collided with deer along the w...
I don’t know where to turn. Yesterday I saw a public display of what I am sure is gender related wrongness and think I need to report it, I just don’t know what government agency to call. Understand, I don’t really want to rat out the suspect involved, I just want to protect myself from being turned in for not performing my mandatory civic duty of turning someone in for something that I think other people think is wrong. If that sounds confusing the way I say it, well, I admit, I am confu...
It’s hard to sit back and do nothing. As I sat in my office Monday morning writing the latest update on the River Road East Fire, waiting for the rain that eventually came pouring, it was numbing. It’s hard to focus when we know what is happening to the east. On Sunday, I spoke with people who had lost their homes from the River Road East Fire. We’ve asked in the question of the week previously what people would take in case of a wildfire. I’d grab my dog and my phone, some clothes and the box of photos that aren’t digitized. Some of the resid...
Once upon a time, long, long ago — at least a decade, maybe more — I was enlisted by a couple of teachers from a local school to help lead a group of seventh graders into the wilderness. Their idea was to bring them back as well, not just leave them there, tempting as it might be. These were good kids, most on the cusp of puberty, some having passed that tipping point and some still maneuvering toward it. For the most part, they were divided into two basic groups: a giggle of girls and a boggle of boys. These classifications may not be com...
It is not unusual to hear people complaining bitterly about road closures on public lands. A certain amount of resentment is natural, when you encounter a gate or barrier blocking motorized access to what looks like a perfectly good road. What gives? Actually, road closures are not the result of a nefarious plot by evil people who want to take away our freedoms. The Kootenai Forest Stakeholders Collaborative (KFSC) wants the public to be aware that there are some solid reasons why not all forest roads are open to motor vehicles. Many years of...
In my first few years as a newspaper publisher, I was hesitant to use my editorial space to find fault in things I saw in our area of coverage. Everything was “rainbows and unicorns,” as I like to say, and I had a pretty positive angle. Recently, “Our Viewpoint” has been critical of several happenings in Sanders County. That’s necessary, too. But the definition of critical is to identify the faults and the merits of something. A few months ago, I decided I needed to take a year off. Don’t worry, it’s not what you think. After serving as a...
President Biden is asking Congress for $24 billion to support Ukraine. There will be a fight over this request, I am sure, and the reasons will be we are spending too much money, period, and if we are going to spend too much money let’s spend it on America. I offer one reason for supporting Ukraine: Putin. Like most despots, Putin has some—to be polite—mental health issues. OK, he’s nuts, but he’s a nut with nuclear weapons and needs to be dealt with in the strongest way possible, short of...
Dear Annie Wooden, Thank you for the honesty about you wearing different hats, as well as the comments and actions of the public in relation to reporters. I have comments and thoughts on both of those topics. A colleague of mine gave me a tip on how to recognize if I was still stressing about the work I did at a Washington (DOC) pre-release when I was a licensed addictions counselor. He said he picks a point or imaginary line in his road home and if work is still bothering him he has a plan to resolve and reduce stress: music, talking with a su...
Before I bought a newspaper, there was a lot I didn’t know about our county and our community functioned. I was happy to work, play and just let the officials officiate. More than six years later, I know more than I ever thought I would. Part of keeping the community informed is going to meetings - lots and lots of meetings. There are budget meetings, council meetings, meetings about ambulance services or meetings about ordinances, and sometimes even meetings about scheduling more meetings. We go to a lot of meetings, and we do our best to p...
The summer of 2023 for me will always be the summer of change. Shifting family roles as generational changes occurred, creating new relationships with other family members based on a new place they achieved in the hierarchy of life. And a new appreciation for the generational threads that hold families together. So, as I considered topics for my column this month, I found I was torn. Opening my new property assessment provided ample thoughts to fill my 900 words with. Preparing to co-host an...
As the newly appointed mayor of Thompson Falls, I am writing this to follow up on one of the things that I talked about in the city council meeting of July 31, that being communication. I hope to be able to provide some information as to what your City government is doing. This time around I will talk about the budget process. The City budget process is fairly lengthy, usually starting in May. The Clerk asks the heads of the public works, police, city attorney, city court and also the clerks own departments to review their budgets from the...
Who puts out the wildfire and what laws are they governed by? Who’s in charge and why? Fire suppression is on everyone’s mind in the summer and we all have questions about how it works. Wildland fires are different than structural fires. They mainly travel through natural fuels instead starting within a houses or barn. According to Montana law, it’s the responsibility of the State of Montana to suppress wildfires on all private and state lands; this duty is assigned to the MT Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. On federal lands...
Anytime we go anywhere my husband laughs at me and asks how many books I’m bringing. It doesn’t matter where we’re going, I always have a minimum of two physical books and one e-book with me. Always. The one time I forgot a book I ended up taking a much needed and very unexpected nap…but I’d rather be reading. People always talk about their summer vacations and all I want to know is if they read any good books. I may have a problem…. I read nine books in July, six of which were four stars or better, and (sadly?) none of which I’d consider a “su...
July was dry and unseasonably hot! The market was not quite as hot with pretty level inventory levels, growing days on market and inventory levels up over a year as far as months of supply absorption rate. Interest rates continue to rise, which is affecting the market as well. We have seen a lot of price reductions, but steady value on sold properties thus far. These next few months are always the busiest for closing sales typically in our local real estate market. So, they will tell the story soon. The huckleberries are the biggest, juiciest,...
Some of you know me as Annie Wooden, daughter of Barb and Gene. Some of you know me as Annie Wooden, cake maker, golf partner and dog mom. Some of you know me as Annie Wooden, publisher of The Sanders County Ledger. And some of you don’t know me at all – you only know the words I write here each week. I wear a lot of hats, like most people do. We can play the role of parent, student, son, daughter, co-worker, boss or friend, and we can play multiple roles simultaneously. Sometimes it can even be difficult to turn off those roles. I’m alway...
