Bitterroot Star

Work on Montana Department of Transportation’s Eastside Highway  construction project south of Stevensville has come to halt. According to Amy Aiello of Big Sky Public Relations who has been working under contract for the company doing the road construction, a statement was issued last week saying that FirstMark Construction has “discontinued their business with the […]

Ravalli Electric Cooperative (REC) has acquired Grizzly Broadband, formerly known as Cybernet1, one of the area’s top internet and fiber solutions provider. The partnership will allow the two organizations to combine their resources and decades of experience to offer affordable and reliable high-speed internet and technology services to members and customers throughout the Bitterroot Valley. […]

by Liz Cook The name Bobby Steiner might not ring a bell with most people, but it sure did with Cal Ruark, the President of the Darby Rodeo Association. The two met last year outside of Murdoch’s by chance. Steiner was the World Champion Bull Rider in 1973 and comes from a long line of […]

Brittany McLaughlin, parent of a seventh grader at Florence-Carlton Middle School, recently organized a social media group called the Bitterroot Alliance for Diversity and Equality. The group was originally called Bitterroot Alliance Against Hate, but McLaughlin said she didn’t want to include the word “hate” in the group’s name. It’s a Facebook group working to […]

by Nathan Boddy A packed room awaited the Hamilton City Council’s Committee of the Whole (COW) on Tuesday evening, May 25. Only three items were on the agenda for discussion, but it was the item presented by high school students, Frances Carrasco and Inga Watt, which dominated discussion for the evening. The proposal, as submitted […]

Habitat for Humanity is a global nonprofit housing organization working in local communities across all 50 states in the U.S. and in approximately 70 countries. Habitat’s vision is of a world where everyone has a decent place to live. To make that happen, Habitat for Humanity volunteers build homes that working people can purchase through […]

By Denise Ard, Director, North Valley Public Library If you are a regular user of the library, you know that we have an old threadbare red carpet held together with duct tape, covering a squeaky uneven floor causing a tripping hazard. You probably also noticed that our library is noisy and the designated “quiet area” […]

by Nathan Boddy The Bitterroot Public Library has added a new member to its staff with Ravalli County local, Annika Riley, as the Library’s Youth Services Librarian. While new to the Hamilton location, Riley brings with her the four years of experience she gained at the North Valley Public Library’s Youth Services Specialist in Stevensville. […]

Ravalli County Commissioners are considering how best to spend the $8.5 million that has already been allocated to the county under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) for reimbursement for negative impacts related to COVID-19. The funding can be used to cover eligible expenses incurred between March 3, 2020 and December 31, 2020. Chief Financial […]

A recently adopted Montana state law removing “numeric” nutrient water quality standards as a criteria has been challenged by the Upper Missouri Waterkeepers, an organization that has been involved in litigation with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over the variances that were allowed under the numeric standards. The organization has now petitioned the EPA to […]

Community fundraiser scheduled Robert and Kate Lutzenhiser have owned and operated a downtown business in Stevensville for over 30 years. They have been an integral part of the community, providing art, culture and fellowship to their friends and business colleagues through good times and bad. They represent all that is good about Stevensville, a town […]

by Nathan Boddy The Hamilton City Council met during their regularly scheduled meeting on Wednesday, May 18th, with a full agenda before them. Only the second in-person meeting since Covid-19 forced much of its activity onto other platforms, the Council found itself before a small, socially distanced, audience. Two rezoning requests, both forwarded to the […]

Steve Gibson, a former council member and former council president, has filed for the position of Stevensville mayor.  Gibson has been a public servant for over 40 years. He and his wife have been married for 47 years. He has two children and two grandchildren, all in Montana. He served in the Montana legislature for […]

The  Western Agricultural Research Center in Corvallis is set to receive about $1.2 million in funding from the state for construction of a new facility. The funding is included within a broader legislative appropriation of $11 million for improvements to six agricultural experiment stations across the state. In Corvallis the funds will be spent on […]