Jennifer B. Lint
Boatwright Law Office, P.C.
1091 South First Street
Hamilton, MT 59840
(406) 375-1385
Attorney for Co-Personal Representatives
MONTANA TWENTY-FIRST JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT, RAVALLI COUNTY
IN THE MATTER OF THE ESTATE OF CHARLES LEROY MEHLHAFF, Deceased.
Case No.: DP-16-21
Dept. No. 1
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the undersigned have been appointed Co-Personal Representatives of the above-named estate. All persons having claims against the decedent are required to present their claims within four months after the date of the first publication of this notice or said claims will be forever barred.
Claims must either be mailed to Cheri Mitchell and Carol Lea, the Co-Personal Representatives, return receipt requested, at Boatwright Law Office, 1091 S. First Street, Hamilton, MT 59840, or filed with the Clerk of the above-entitled Court.
DATED this 2nd day of March, 2016.
/s/ Cheri Mitchell, Co-Personal Representative
/s/ Carol Lea, Co-Personal Representative
BS 3-9, 3-16, 3-23-16. MNAXLP
Jennifer B. Lint
Boatwright Law Office, P.C.
1091 South First Street
Hamilton, MT 59840
(406) 375-1385
Attorney for Personal Representative
MONTANA TWENTY-FIRST JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT, RAVALLI COUNTY
IN THE MATTER OF THE ESTATE OF THOMAS L. BOE, Deceased.
Case No. DP-16-26
Dept. No. 2
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the undersigned has been appointed Personal Representative of the above-named estate. All persons having claims against the decedent are required to present their claims within four months after the date of the first publication of this notice or said claims will be forever barred.
Claims must either be mailed to Jeremy Boe, the Personal Representative, return receipt requested, at Boatwright Law Office, 1091 S. First Street, Hamilton, MT 59840, or filed with the Clerk of the above-entitled Court.
DATED this 11th day of March, 2016.
/s/ Jeremy Boe, Personal Representative
BS 3-16, 3-23, 3-30-16. MNAXLP
MONTANA WATER COURT
MAINSTEM BITTERROOT RIVER AND EAST SIDE – (SUBBASIN 76HA)
NOTICE OF ENTRY OF PRELIMINARY DECREE AND NOTICE OF AVAILABILITY
ALL WATER USERS NEED TO READ THIS NOTICE
The Montana Water Court has entered its Preliminary Decree for the Mainstem Bitterroot River And East Side (Subbasin 76HA). This water rights Decree is now available for your review.
WHAT IS THE PRELIMINARY DECREE?
The Preliminary Decree contains 2,867 abstracts of existing water right claims filed in the Mainstem Bitterroot River And East Side (Subbasin 76HA). The Decree includes all sources of water located within that drainage. The Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law in the Index volume of the Decree explain how the Decree was prepared.
What you should do:
1. Review the abstract of your own water right claim or claims.
2. Review the abstracts of all other water rights that affect your water right.
3. Decide if these abstracts correctly identify pre-July 1973 water use.
4. Decide if you want to file objections.
5. File your objections with the Water Court on or before the filing deadline.
Your water right can be affected by what is in your abstract and other abstracts in the Decree. The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC) examined all the claims. Elements of your claim may have been changed because of information the DNRC obtained during examination. If your abstract shows changes, you can challenge the changes by filing an objection with the Water Court.
Look the abstracts over carefully. The Decree Indexes will help your review.
The Source Name Index lists all claims under the name of each source of supply (Bitterroot River, for example). Under each source name, the claims are listed from the earliest priority date to the latest priority date.
The Priority Date Index lists all claims in Subbasin 76HA beginning with the earliest date and continuing to the latest. You can find the rank of the priority date of all claims in the Decree in this index.
If there are issue remarks on the abstract of your claim which are not resolved by objection, those remarks will be addressed and resolved by the Water Court pursuant to Section 85-2-248, Montana Code Annotated. The Water Court will contact you about the issue remarks if no one objects to your claim.
SHOULD YOU FILE AN OBJECTION?
Only you can answer this question. You should first examine the abstracts of your water rights. Is the abstract correct as of July 1, 1973? If you don’t agree with the elements of your abstract as printed in the Decree, you may file an objection.
You need to know:
1. Your water right may be subject to other water rights on your source or on other sources in the Subbasin;
2. Your water right may be subject to water rights in adjoining Subbasins and Basins;
3. Your water right may be subject to Indian and Federal reserved water rights;
4. A claim that no one objects to or does not contain issue remarks may remain unchanged and may be entered in the Final Decree as is; and
5. This Decree, as modified by objections and hearings, will be enforceable under Montana law (Sections 3-7-212 and 85-2-406, MCA).
If you believe your water right claims or someone else’s water right claims in this Decree do not reflect their historical (before July 1, 1973) beneficial use, you can file an objection.HOW TO FILE AN OBJECTION AND REQUEST A HEARING
Objections must be filed on the forms provided by the Water Court. These can be found at the offices listed below or on the Internet.
ALL OBJECTIONS MUST BE RECEIVED AT THE WATER COURT ON OR BEFORE JUNE 1, 2016. Objections may be mailed to the Montana Water Court, PO Box 1389, Bozeman, MT 59771-1389, but they still must be received by JUNE 1, 2016.
EXTENSIONS
The Water Judge may grant a request for an extension of the time for filing objections. A request for an extension must be received by the Water Court on or before JUNE 1, 2016. Use the Water Court’s form. If an extension is granted, it will apply to everyone. Any extension will be posted at the offices listed below and will be advertised once in the Missoulian, Ravalli Republic and Bitterroot Star.
NOTICE OF AVAILABILITY
The Decree (including the Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and Decree Index) is available for review and Water Court forms are available at these locations:
1. Montana Water Court, 601 Haggerty Lane, Bozeman, MT.
2. Montana DNRC, Water Rights Adjudication Office, 910 Helena Avenue, Helena, MT.
3. Montana DNRC, Water Resources Regional Office(s): 2705 Spurgin Road, Bldg C, Missoula, MT.
4. On the internet at www.dnrc.mt.gov/wrd/water_rts/adjudication Scroll down to Basin 76HA and click on Mainstem Bitterroot River And East Side. Click on the 76HA Decree information that interests you.
You may obtain a copy of the Preliminary Decree from the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, Water Rights Bureau, P.O. Box 201601, Helena, MT, 59620-1601. The cost of the Decree, including the Index, Findings and Conclusions is $707.00. The Index by itself is $136.00. Electronic copies of the Decree, including the Index on CD are $10.00.
AFTER OBJECTIONS ARE FILED
After the time for filing objections has passed, the Water Court will notify you by mail if someone objects to any of your claims. If someone objects to your water right claims, then you are entitled to file counterobjections to their claims. The Water Court will notify you of the time when counterobjections must be filed. The Water Court will set a date for all interested parties to notify the Water Court of their intent in participating in any hearings.
RIGHT TO APPEAL
If you do not participate in Water Court proceedings, your right to appeal an adverse decision is limited. Section 85-2-235, MCA, provides that (1) a person whose existing rights and priorities are finally determined may appeal that determination only if: (a) the person requested a hearing and appeared and entered objections to the Preliminary Decree, (b) the person’s rights or priorities as determined in the Decree were affected as the result of an objection filed by another person, (c) the person requested a hearing and appeared before the Water Court to finally resolve an issue remark; or (d) the person is a claimant appealing an adverse decision when the Water Court issued the decision as the result of an evidentiary hearing or as the result of calling the claim in on the Court’s own motion. (2) If the Attorney General participated as an intervenor as provided in section 85-2-248, MCA, the Attorney General may appeal a decision. (3) An interlocutory ruling by a water judge upon a question of law may be appealed by a party affected by the decision and who participated in the matter in which the ruling was issued.
Meetings with the Water Court
Two informal public meetings will be held by Anika Stern, Senior Water Master, via telephone conference call at the times listed below, Dial 877-526-1243, at prompt enter code: 46309676#.
1) Wednesday evening, April 6, 2016 at 8:00 pm.
2) Thursday evening, April 14, 2016 at 8:00 pm.
Any Questions?
Call the DNRC Missoula office at 406-721-4284 or call the Water Court’s toll free number at 1-800-¬624-3270 (In Montana). Our regular office number is 406-586-4364 and it is not toll free.
DATED this 4th day of December 2015.
/s/ Russ McElyea Chief Water Judge Montana Water Court
PO Box 1389 Bozeman, MT 59771-1389
Remember: Objections must be received by the Water Court by JUNE 1, 2016.
BS 3-16, 3-23, 3-30-16. MNAXLP
Annual School Election Petitions
of Stevensville School District No. 2, Ravalli County, Montana for the Election of three (3) trustees to be elected for a three (3) year term for the Stevensville Elementary/High school district. The petitions can be picked up at 300 Park Street, Stevensville, MT at the Superintendent Office or the Business Office. Deadline for petitions is March 24, 2016 by 4:30 p.m.
BS 3-16, 3-23-16. MNAXLP
ATTENTION LANDSCAPERS:
INVITATION FOR BIDS
The Victor Park District is accepting bids for landscape work including mowing, weed eating, irrigation maintenance and miscellaneous work for the Victor Park, Victor Ballfield, Highway 93 plantings and Main Street. Call Roger at 961-3953 for a bid package.
BS 3-16. MNAXLP